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Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.;[1] /ˈklɪ/; July 4, 1872 – January 5, 1933) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929.

Calvin Coolidge
Coolidge in 1919
30th President of the United States
In office
August 2, 1923 – March 4, 1929
Vice President
Preceded byWarren G. Harding
Succeeded byHerbert Hoover
29th Vice President of the United States
In office
March 4, 1921 – August 2, 1923
PresidentWarren G. Harding
Preceded byThomas R. Marshall
Succeeded byCharles G. Dawes
48th Governor of Massachusetts
In office
January 2, 1919 – January 6, 1921
LieutenantChanning H. Cox
Preceded bySamuel W. McCall
Succeeded byChanning H. Cox
46th Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts
In office
January 6, 1916 – January 2, 1919
GovernorSamuel W. McCall
Preceded byGrafton D. Cushing
Succeeded byChanning H. Cox
President of the Massachusetts Senate
In office
January 7, 1914 – January 6, 1915
Preceded byLevi H. Greenwood
Succeeded byHenry Gordon Wells
Member of the Massachusetts Senate
In office
January 3, 1912 – January 6, 1915
Preceded byAllen T. Treadway
Succeeded byJohn B. Hull
ConstituencyBerkshire, Hampden, and Hampshire counties
16th Mayor of Northampton
In office
January 3, 1910 – January 1, 1912
Preceded byJames W. O'Brien
Succeeded byWilliam Feiker
Member of the
Massachusetts House of Representatives
In office
January 2, 1907 – January 6, 1909
Preceded byMoses M. Bassett
Succeeded byCharles A. Montgomery
Constituency1st Hampshire
Personal details
Born
John Calvin Coolidge Jr.

(1872-07-04)July 4, 1872
Plymouth Notch, Vermont, U.S.
DiedJanuary 5, 1933(1933-01-05) (aged 60)
Northampton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Resting placePlymouth Notch Cemetery
Political partyRepublican
Spouse
(m. 1905)
Children
Parent
RelativesCalvin Galusha Coolidge (grandfather)
EducationAmherst College (AB)
Occupation
  • Politician
  • lawyer
Signature

Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a Republican lawyer from New England who climbed up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, becoming the state's 48th governor; his response to the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight as a man of decisive action. Coolidge was elected the country's 29th vice president the next year, succeeding the presidency upon the sudden death of President Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924, Coolidge gained a reputation as a small-government conservative distinguished by a taciturn personality and dry sense of humor, receiving the nickname "Silent Cal". Though his widespread popularity enabled him to run for a third term, he chose not to run again in 1928, remarking that ten years as president was (at the time) "longer than any other man has had it – too long!"

Throughout his gubernatorial career, Coolidge ran on the record of fiscal conservatism, strong support for women's suffrage, and a vague opposition to Prohibition.[2] During his presidency, he restored public confidence in the White House after the many scandals of the Harding administration. He signed into law the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924, which granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans, and oversaw a period of rapid and expansive economic growth known as the "Roaring Twenties", leaving office with considerable popularity.[3] He was known for his hands-off governing approach and pro-business stances. As a Coolidge biographer wrote: "He embodied the spirit and hopes of the middle class, could interpret their longings and express their opinions. That he did represent the genius of the average is the most convincing proof of his strength."[4]

Scholars have ranked Coolidge in the lower half of U.S. presidents. He gains almost universal praise for his stalwart support of racial equality during a period of heightened racial tension in the United States,[5] and is highly praised by advocates of smaller government and laissez-faire economics, while supporters of an active central government generally view him far less favorably. His critics argue that he failed to use the country's economic boom to help struggling farmers and workers in other flailing industries,[6] and there is still much debate among historians as to the extent to which Coolidge's economic policies contributed to the onset of the Great Depression.[7]

Early life and family history

John Calvin Coolidge Jr. was born on July 4, 1872, in Plymouth Notch, Vermont—the only U.S. president to be born on Independence Day. He was the elder of the two children of John Calvin Coolidge Sr. (1845–1926) and Victoria Josephine Moor (1846–1885). Although named for his father, John, from early childhood Coolidge was addressed by his middle name, Calvin. His middle name was selected in honor of John Calvin, a founder of the Congregational church in which Coolidge was raised and remained active throughout his life.[8]

Coolidge Senior engaged in many occupations and developed a statewide reputation as a prosperous farmer, storekeeper, and public servant. He held various local offices, including justice of the peace and tax collector and served in the Vermont House of Representatives as well as the Vermont Senate.[9] Coolidge's mother was the daughter of Hiram Dunlap Moor, a Plymouth Notch farmer and Abigail Franklin.[10] She was chronically ill and died at the age of 39, perhaps from tuberculosis, when Coolidge was 12 years old. His younger sister, Abigail Grace Coolidge (1875–1890), died at the age of 15, probably of appendicitis, when Coolidge was 18. Coolidge's father married a Plymouth schoolteacher in 1891, and lived to the age of 80.[11]

Coolidge's family had deep roots in New England. The earliest American ancestor, John Coolidge, emigrated from Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, England, around 1630 and settled in Watertown, Massachusetts.[12] Coolidge's great-great-grandfather, also named John Coolidge, was an American military officer in the Revolutionary War and one of the first selectmen of the town of Plymouth.[13] His grandfather Calvin Galusha Coolidge served in the Vermont House of Representatives.[14] Coolidge was also a descendant of Samuel Appleton, who settled in Ipswich and led the Massachusetts Bay Colony during King Philip's War.[15]

Early career and marriage

Education and law practice

Coolidge attended Black River Academy and then St. Johnsbury Academy before enrolling at Amherst College, where he distinguished himself in the debating class. As a senior, he joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and graduated cum laude. While at Amherst, Coolidge was profoundly influenced by philosophy professor Charles Edward Garman—a Congregational mystic who had a neo-Hegelian philosophy.

Coolidge explained Garman's ethics forty years later:

[T]here is a standard of righteousness that might does not make right, that the end does not justify the means, and that expediency as a working principle is bound to fail. The only hope of perfecting human relationships is in accordance with the law of service under which men are not so solicitous about what they shall get as they are about what they shall give. Yet people are entitled to the rewards of their industry. What they earn is theirs, no matter how small or how great. But the possession of property carries the obligation to use it in a larger service...[16]

At his father's urging after graduation, Coolidge moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, to become a lawyer. Coolidge followed the common practice of apprenticing with a local law firm, Hammond & Field, and reading law with them. John C. Hammond and Henry P. Field, both Amherst graduates, introduced Coolidge to law practice in the county seat of Hampshire County, Massachusetts. In 1897, Coolidge was admitted to the Massachusetts bar, becoming a country lawyer.[17] With his savings and a small inheritance from his grandfather, Coolidge opened his own law office in Northampton in 1898. He practiced commercial law, believing that he served his clients best by staying out of court. As his reputation as a hard-working and diligent attorney grew, local banks and other businesses began to retain his services.[18]

Marriage and family

In 1903, Coolidge met Grace Goodhue, a University of Vermont graduate and teacher at Northampton's Clarke School for the Deaf. They married on October 4, 1905, at 2:30 p.m. in a small ceremony which took place in the parlor of Grace's family's house, having overcome her mother's objections to the marriage.[19] The newlyweds went on a honeymoon trip to Montreal, originally planned for two weeks but cut short by a week at Coolidge's request. After 25 years he wrote of Grace, "for almost a quarter of a century she has borne with my infirmities and I have rejoiced in her graces".[20]

The Coolidges had two sons: John (1906–2000) and Calvin Jr. (1908–1924). On June 30, 1924, Calvin Jr. had played tennis with his brother on the White House tennis courts without putting on socks and developed a blister on one of his toes. The blister subsequently degenerated into sepsis. Calvin Jr. died a little over a week later at the age of 16.[21] The President never forgave himself for Calvin Jr's death.[22] His eldest son John said it "hurt [Coolidge] terribly", and psychiatric biographer Robert E. Gilbert, author of The Tormented President: Calvin Coolidge, Death, and Clinical Depression, said that Coolidge "ceased to function as President after the death of his sixteen-year-old son". Gilbert explains in his book how Coolidge displayed all ten of the symptoms listed by the American Psychiatric Association as evidence of major depressive disorder following Calvin Jr.'s sudden death.[23] John later became a railroad executive, helped to start the Coolidge Foundation, and was instrumental in creating the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site.[24]

Coolidge was frugal, and when it came to securing a home, he insisted upon renting. He and his wife attended Northampton's Edwards Congregational Church before and after his presidency.[25][26]

Local political office (1898−1915)

City offices

The Republican Party was dominant in New England at the time, and Coolidge followed the example of Hammond and Field by becoming active in local politics.[27] In 1896, Coolidge campaigned for Republican presidential candidate William McKinley, and was selected to be a member of the Republican City Committee the next year.[28] In 1898, he won election to the City Council of Northampton, placing second in a ward where the top three candidates were elected.[27] The position offered no salary but provided Coolidge with valuable political experience.[29] In 1899, he was chosen City Solicitor by the City Council. He was elected for a one-year term in 1900, and reelected in 1901.[30] This position gave Coolidge more experience as a lawyer and paid a salary of $600 (equivalent to $19,543 in 2021).[30] In 1902, the city council selected a Democrat for city solicitor, and Coolidge returned to private practice. Soon thereafter, however, the clerk of courts for the county died, and Coolidge was chosen to replace him. The position paid well, but it barred him from practicing law, so he remained at the job for only one year.[31] In 1904, Coolidge suffered his sole defeat at the ballot box, losing an election to the Northampton school board. When told that some of his neighbors voted against him because he had no children in the schools he would govern, the recently married Coolidge replied, "Might give me time!"[31]

Massachusetts state legislator and mayor

 
Coolidge as a State Representative in 1908

In 1906, the local Republican committee nominated Coolidge for election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives. He won a close victory over the incumbent Democrat, and reported to Boston for the 1907 session of the Massachusetts General Court.[32] In his freshman term, Coolidge served on minor committees and, although he usually voted with the party, was known as a Progressive Republican, voting in favor of such measures as women's suffrage and the direct election of Senators.[33] While in Boston, Coolidge became an ally, and then a liegeman, of then U.S. Senator Winthrop Murray Crane who controlled the western faction of the Massachusetts Republican Party; Crane's party rival in the east of the commonwealth was U.S. Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.[34] Coolidge forged another key strategic alliance with Guy Currier, who had served in both state houses and had the social distinction, wealth, personal charm and broad circle of friends which Coolidge lacked, and which would have a lasting impact on his political career.[35] In 1907, he was elected to a second term, and in the 1908 session Coolidge was more outspoken, though not in a leadership position.[36]

 
Coolidge's home (1906−1930) in Northampton, Massachusetts

Instead of vying for another term in the State House, Coolidge returned home to his growing family and ran for mayor of Northampton when the incumbent Democrat retired. He was well liked in the town, and defeated his challenger by a vote of 1,597 to 1,409.[37] During his first term (1910 to 1911), he increased teachers' salaries and retired some of the city's debt while still managing to effect a slight tax decrease.[38] He was renominated in 1911, and defeated the same opponent by a slightly larger margin.[39]

In 1911, the State Senator for the Hampshire County area retired and successfully encouraged Coolidge to run for his seat for the 1912 session; Coolidge defeated his Democratic opponent by a large margin.[40] At the start of that term, he became chairman of a committee to arbitrate the "Bread and Roses" strike by the workers of the American Woolen Company in Lawrence, Massachusetts.[b] After two tense months, the company agreed to the workers' demands, in a settlement proposed by the committee.[41] A major issue affecting Massachusetts Republicans that year was the party split between the progressive wing, which favored Theodore Roosevelt, and the conservative wing, which favored William Howard Taft. Although he favored some progressive measures, Coolidge refused to leave the Republican party.[42] When the new Progressive Party declined to run a candidate in his state senate district, Coolidge won reelection against his Democratic opponent by an increased margin.[42]

"Do the day's work. If it be to protect the rights of the weak, whoever objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve the people, whatever the opposition, do that. Expect to be called a stand-patter, but don't be a stand-patter. Expect to be called a demagogue, but don't be a demagogue. Don't hesitate to be as revolutionary as science. Don't hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table. Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. Don't hurry to legislate. Give administration a chance to catch up with legislation."
"Have Faith in Massachusetts" as delivered by Calvin Coolidge to the Massachusetts State Senate, 1914[43]

In the 1913 session, Coolidge enjoyed renowned success in arduously navigating to passage the Western Trolley Act, which connected Northampton with a dozen similar industrial communities in western Massachusetts.[44] Coolidge intended to retire after his second term as was the custom, but when the president of the state senate, Levi H. Greenwood, considered running for lieutenant governor, Coolidge decided to run again for the Senate in the hopes of being elected as its presiding officer.[45] Although Greenwood later decided to run for reelection to the Senate, he was defeated primarily due to his opposition to women's suffrage; Coolidge was in favor of the women's vote, won his re-election, and with Crane's help, assumed the presidency of a closely divided Senate.[46] After his election in January 1914, Coolidge delivered a published and frequently quoted speech entitled Have Faith in Massachusetts, which summarized his philosophy of government.[43]

Coolidge's speech was well received, and he attracted some admirers on its account;[47] towards the end of the term, many of them were proposing his name for nomination to lieutenant governor. After winning reelection to the Senate by an increased margin in the 1914 elections, Coolidge was reelected unanimously to be President of the Senate.[48] Coolidge's supporters, led by fellow Amherst alumnus Frank Stearns, encouraged him again to run for lieutenant governor.[49] Stearns, an executive with the Boston department store R. H. Stearns, became another key ally, and began a publicity campaign on Coolidge's behalf before he announced his candidacy at the end of the 1915 legislative session.[50]

Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Massachusetts (1916−1921)

 
Coolidge with his family (1900)

Coolidge entered the primary election for lieutenant governor and was nominated to run alongside gubernatorial candidate Samuel W. McCall. Coolidge was the leading vote-getter in the Republican primary, and balanced the Republican ticket by adding a western presence to McCall's eastern base of support.[51] McCall and Coolidge won the 1915 election to their respective one-year terms, with Coolidge defeating his opponent by more than 50,000 votes.[52]

In Massachusetts, the lieutenant governor does not preside over the state Senate, as is the case in many other states; nevertheless, as lieutenant governor, Coolidge was a deputy governor functioning as an administrative inspector and was a member of the governor's council. He was also chairman of the finance committee and the pardons committee.[53] As a full-time elected official, Coolidge discontinued his law practice in 1916, though his family continued to live in Northampton.[54] McCall and Coolidge were both reelected in 1916 and again in 1917. When McCall decided that he would not stand for a fourth term, Coolidge announced his intention to run for governor.[55]

1918 election

Coolidge was unopposed for the Republican nomination for Governor of Massachusetts in 1918. He and his running mate, Channing Cox, a Boston lawyer and Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, ran on the previous administration's record: fiscal conservatism, a vague opposition to Prohibition, support for women's suffrage, and support for American involvement in World War I.[2] The issue of the war proved divisive, especially among Irish and German Americans.[56] Coolidge was elected by a margin of 16,773 votes over his opponent, Richard H. Long, in the smallest margin of victory of any of his statewide campaigns.[57]

Boston Police Strike

In 1919, in reaction to a plan of the policemen of the Boston Police Department to register with a union, Police Commissioner Edwin U. Curtis announced that such an act would not be tolerated. In August of that year, the American Federation of Labor issued a charter to the Boston Police Union.[58] Curtis declared the union's leaders were guilty of insubordination and would be relieved of duty, but indicated he would cancel their suspension if the union was dissolved by September 4.[59] The mayor of Boston, Andrew Peters, convinced Curtis to delay his action for a few days, but with no results, and Curtis suspended the union leaders on September 8.[60] The following day, about three-quarters of the policemen in Boston went on strike.[61][c] Coolidge, tacitly but fully in support of Curtis' position, closely monitored the situation but initially deferred to the local authorities. He anticipated that only a resulting measure of lawlessness could sufficiently prompt the public to understand and appreciate the controlling principle – that a policeman does not strike. That night and the next, there was sporadic violence and rioting in the unruly city.[62] Peters, concerned about sympathy strikes by the firemen and others, called up some units of the Massachusetts National Guard stationed in the Boston area pursuant to an old and obscure legal authority, and relieved Curtis of duty.[63]

"Your assertion that the Commissioner was wrong cannot justify the wrong of leaving the city unguarded. That furnished the opportunity; the criminal element furnished the action. There is no right to strike against the public safety by anyone, anywhere, any time. ... I am equally determined to defend the sovereignty of Massachusetts and to maintain the authority and jurisdiction over her public officers where it has been placed by the Constitution and laws of her people."
"Telegram from Governor Calvin Coolidge to Samuel Gompers", September 14, 1919[64]

Coolidge, sensing the severity of circumstances were then in need of his intervention, conferred with Crane's operative, William Butler, and then acted.[65] He called up more units of the National Guard, restored Curtis to office, and took personal control of the police force.[66] Curtis proclaimed that all of the strikers were fired from their jobs, and Coolidge called for a new police force to be recruited.[67] That night Coolidge received a telegram from AFL leader Samuel Gompers. "Whatever disorder has occurred", Gompers wrote, "is due to Curtis's order in which the right of the policemen has been denied…"[68] Coolidge publicly answered Gompers's telegram, denying any justification whatsoever for the strike – and his response launched him into the national consciousness.[68] Newspapers across the nation picked up on Coolidge's statement and he became the newest hero to opponents of the strike. Amid of the First Red Scare, many Americans were terrified of the spread of communist revolutions, like those that had taken place in Russia, Hungary, and Germany. While Coolidge had lost some friends among organized labor, conservatives across the nation had seen a rising star.[69] Although he usually acted with deliberation, the Boston police strike gave him a national reputation as a decisive leader, and as a strict enforcer of law and order.

1919 election

 
Coolidge inspects militia in Boston police strike

Coolidge and Cox were renominated for their respective offices in 1919. By this time Coolidge's supporters (especially Stearns) had publicized his actions in the Police Strike around the state and the nation and some of Coolidge's speeches were published in book form.[43] He faced the same opponent as in 1918, Richard Long, but this time Coolidge defeated him by 125,101 votes, more than seven times his margin of victory from a year earlier.[d] His actions in the police strike, combined with the massive electoral victory, led to suggestions that Coolidge run for president in 1920.[71]

Legislation and vetoes as governor

By the time Coolidge was inaugurated on January 2, 1919, the First World War had ended, and Coolidge pushed the legislature to give a $100 bonus (equivalent to $1,563 in 2021) to Massachusetts veterans. He also signed a bill reducing the work week for women and children from fifty-four hours to forty-eight, saying, "We must humanize the industry, or the system will break down."[72] He signed into law a budget that kept the tax rates the same, while trimming $4 million from expenditures, thus allowing the state to retire some of its debt.[73]

Coolidge also wielded the veto pen as governor. His most publicized veto prevented an increase in legislators' pay by 50%.[74] Although Coolidge was personally opposed to Prohibition, he vetoed a bill in May 1920 that would have allowed the sale of beer or wine of 2.75% alcohol or less, in Massachusetts in violation of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. "Opinions and instructions do not outmatch the Constitution," he said in his veto message. "Against it, they are void."[75]

Vice presidency (1921−1923)

1920 election

 
An original Harding-Coolidge campaign button

At the 1920 Republican National Convention, most of the delegates were selected by state party caucuses, not primaries. As such, the field was divided among many local favorites.[76] Coolidge was one such candidate, and while he placed as high as sixth in the voting, the powerful party bosses running the convention, primarily the party's U.S. Senators, never considered him seriously.[77] After ten ballots, the bosses and then the delegates settled on Senator Warren G. Harding of Ohio as their nominee for president.[78] When the time came to select a vice presidential nominee, the bosses also made and announced their decision on whom they wanted – Sen. Irvine Lenroot of Wisconsin – and then prematurely departed after his name was put forth, relying on the rank and file to confirm their decision. A delegate from Oregon, Wallace McCamant, having read Have Faith in Massachusetts, proposed Coolidge for vice president instead. The suggestion caught on quickly with the masses starving for an act of independence from the absent bosses, and Coolidge was unexpectedly nominated.[79]

The Democrats nominated another Ohioan, James M. Cox, for president and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, for vice president. The question of the United States joining the League of Nations was a major issue in the campaign, as was the unfinished legacy of Progressivism.[80] Harding ran a "front-porch" campaign from his home in Marion, Ohio, but Coolidge took to the campaign trail in the Upper South, New York, and New England – his audiences carefully limited to those familiar with Coolidge and those placing a premium upon concise and short speeches.[81] On November 2, 1920, Harding and Coolidge were victorious in a landslide, winning more than 60 percent of the popular vote, including every state outside the South.[80] They also won in Tennessee, the first time a Republican ticket had won a Southern state since Reconstruction.[80]

"Silent Cal"

 
President Harding and Vice President Coolidge with their wives

The U.S. vice-presidency did not carry many official duties, but Coolidge was invited by President Harding to attend cabinet meetings, making him the first vice president to do so.[82] He gave a number of unremarkable speeches around the country.[83]

As vice president, Coolidge and his vivacious wife Grace were invited to quite a few parties, where the legend of "Silent Cal" was born. It is from this time that most of the jokes and anecdotes involving Coolidge originate, such as Coolidge being "silent in five languages".[84] Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private he was a man of few words and was commonly referred to as "Silent Cal". An apocryphal story has it that a person seated next to him at a dinner said to him, "I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you." He replied, "You lose."[85] However, on April 22, 1924, Coolidge himself said that the "You lose" quotation never occurred. The story about it was related by Frank B. Noyes, President of the Associated Press, to their membership at their annual luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, when toasting and introducing Coolidge, who was the invited speaker. After the introduction and before his prepared remarks, Coolidge said to the membership, "Your President [referring to Noyes] has given you a perfect example of one of those rumors now current in Washington which is without any foundation."[86]

Coolidge often seemed uncomfortable among fashionable Washington society; when asked why he continued to attend so many of their dinner parties, he replied, "Got to eat somewhere."[87] Alice Roosevelt Longworth, a leading Republican wit, underscored Coolidge's silence and his dour personality: "When he wished he were elsewhere, he pursed his lips, folded his arms, and said nothing. He looked then precisely as though he had been weaned on a pickle."[88] Coolidge and his wife, Grace, who was a great baseball fan, once attended a Washington Senators game and sat through all nine innings without saying a word, except once when he asked her the time.[89]

As president, Coolidge's reputation as a quiet man continued. "The words of a President have an enormous weight," he would later write, "and ought not to be used indiscriminately."[90] Coolidge was aware of his stiff reputation; indeed, he cultivated it. "I think the American people want a solemn ass as a President," he once told Ethel Barrymore, "and I think I will go along with them."[91] Some historians suggest that Coolidge's image was created deliberately as a campaign tactic,[92] while others believe his withdrawn and quiet behavior to be natural, deepening after the death of his son in 1924.[93] Dorothy Parker, upon learning that Coolidge had died, reportedly remarked, "How can they tell?"[94]

Presidency (1923−1929)

On August 2, 1923, President Harding died unexpectedly from a heart attack in San Francisco while on a speaking tour of the western United States. Vice President Coolidge was in Vermont visiting his family home, which had neither electricity nor a telephone, when he received word by messenger of Harding's death.[95] Coolidge dressed, said a prayer, and came downstairs to greet the reporters who had assembled.[95] His father, a notary public and justice of the peace, administered the oath of office in the family's parlor by the light of a kerosene lamp at 2:47 a.m. on August 3, 1923, whereupon the new President of the United States returned to bed.

Coolidge returned to Washington the next day, and was sworn in again by Justice Adolph A. Hoehling Jr. of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, to forestall any questions about the authority of a state official to administer a federal oath.[96] This second oath-taking remained a secret until it was revealed by Harry M. Daugherty in 1932, and confirmed by Hoehling.[97] When Hoehling confirmed Daugherty's story, he indicated that Daugherty, then serving as United States Attorney General, asked him to administer the oath without fanfare at the Willard Hotel.[97] According to Hoehling, he did not question Daugherty's reason for requesting a second oath-taking but assumed it was to resolve any doubt about whether the first swearing-in was valid.[97]

 
President Coolidge signing appropriation bills for the Veterans Bureau on the South Lawn during the garden party for wounded veterans, June 5, 1924. General John J. Pershing is at left. The man at right, looking on, appears to be Veterans Bureau Director Frank T. Hines.

The nation initially did not know what to make of Coolidge, who had maintained a low profile in the Harding administration; many had even expected him to be replaced on the ballot in 1924.[98] Coolidge believed that those of Harding's men under suspicion were entitled to every presumption of innocence, taking a methodical approach to the scandals, principally the Teapot Dome scandal, while others clamored for rapid punishment of those they presumed guilty.[99] Coolidge thought the Senate investigations of the scandals would suffice; this was affirmed by the resulting resignations of those involved. He personally intervened in demanding the resignation of Attorney General Harry M. Daugherty after he refused to cooperate with the congressional probe. He then set about to confirm that no loose ends remained in the administration, arranging for a full briefing on the wrongdoing. Harry A. Slattery reviewed the facts with him, Harlan F. Stone analyzed the legal aspects for him and Senator William E. Borah assessed and presented the political factors.[100]

Coolidge addressed Congress when it reconvened on December 6, 1923, giving a speech that supported many of Harding's policies, including Harding's formal budgeting process, the enforcement of immigration restrictions and arbitration of coal strikes ongoing in Pennsylvania.[101] The address to Congress was the first presidential speech to be broadcast over the radio.[102] The Washington Naval Treaty was proclaimed just one month into Coolidge's term, and was generally well received in the country.[103] In May 1924, the World War I veterans' World War Adjusted Compensation Act or "Bonus Bill" was passed over his veto.[104] Coolidge signed the Immigration Act later that year, which was aimed at restricting southern and eastern European immigration, but appended a signing statement expressing his unhappiness with the bill's specific exclusion of Japanese immigrants.[105] Just before the Republican Convention began, Coolidge signed into law the Revenue Act of 1924, which reduced the top marginal tax rate from 58% to 46%, as well as personal income tax rates across the board, increased the estate tax and bolstered it with a new gift tax.[106]

On June 2, 1924, Coolidge signed the act granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States. By that time, two-thirds of them were already citizens, having gained it through marriage, military service (veterans of World War I were granted citizenship in 1919), or the land allotments that had earlier taken place.[107][108][109]

1924 election

 
1924 electoral vote results

The Republican Convention was held on June 10–12, 1924, in Cleveland, Ohio; Coolidge was nominated on the first ballot.[110] The convention nominated Frank Lowden of Illinois for vice president on the second ballot, but he declined; former Brigadier General Charles G. Dawes was nominated on the third ballot and accepted.[110]

The Democrats held their convention the next month in New York City. The convention soon deadlocked, and after 103 ballots, the delegates finally agreed on a compromise candidate, John W. Davis, with Charles W. Bryan nominated for vice president. The Democrats' hopes were buoyed when Robert M. La Follette, a Republican senator from Wisconsin, split from the GOP to form a new Progressive Party. Many believed that the split in the Republican party, like the one in 1912, would allow a Democrat to win the presidency.[111]

After the conventions and the death of his younger son Calvin, Coolidge became withdrawn; he later said that "when he [the son] died, the power and glory of the Presidency went with him."[112] Even as he mourned, Coolidge ran his standard campaign, not mentioning his opponents by name or maligning them, and delivering speeches on his theory of government, including several that were broadcast over the radio.[113] It was the most subdued campaign since 1896, partly because of Coolidge's grief, but also because of his naturally non-confrontational style.[114] The other candidates campaigned in a more modern fashion, but despite the split in the Republican party, the results were similar to those of 1920. Coolidge and Dawes won every state outside the South except Wisconsin, La Follette's home state. Coolidge won the election with 382 electoral votes and the popular vote by 2.5 million over his opponents' combined total.[115]

Industry and trade

"[I]t is probable that a press which maintains an intimate touch with the business currents of the nation is likely to be more reliable than it would be if it were a stranger to these influences. After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world."
"President Calvin Coolidge's address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors", Washington D.C., January 25, 1925[116]

During Coolidge's presidency, the United States experienced a period of rapid economic growth known as the "Roaring Twenties". He left the administration's industrial policy in the hands of his activist Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover, who energetically used government auspices to promote business efficiency and develop airlines and radio.[117] Coolidge disdained regulation and demonstrated this by appointing commissioners to the Federal Trade Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission who did little to restrict the activities of businesses under their jurisdiction.[118] The regulatory state under Coolidge was, as one biographer described it, "thin to the point of invisibility".[119]

Historian Robert Sobel offers some context of Coolidge's laissez-faire ideology, based on the prevailing understanding of federalism during his presidency: "As Governor of Massachusetts, Coolidge supported wages and hours legislation, opposed child labor, imposed economic controls during World War I, favored safety measures in factories, and even worker representation on corporate boards. Did he support these measures while president? No, because in the 1920s, such matters were considered the responsibilities of state and local governments."[120][121] However, Coolidge did sign the Radio Act of 1927 into law that established the Federal Radio Commission (1927–1934), the equal-time rule for radio broadcasters in the United States, and restricted radio broadcasting licenses to stations that demonstrated that they served "the public interest, convenience, or necessity".

Taxation and government spending

Coolidge adopted the taxation policies of his Secretary of the Treasury, Andrew Mellon, who advocated "scientific taxation" – the notion that lowering taxes will increase, rather than decrease, government receipts.[122] Congress agreed, and tax rates were reduced in Coolidge's term.[122] In addition to federal tax cuts, Coolidge proposed reductions in federal expenditures and retiring of the federal debt.[123] Coolidge's ideas were shared by the Republicans in Congress, and in 1924, Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1924, which reduced income tax rates and eliminated all income taxation for some two million people.[123] They reduced taxes again by passing the Revenue Acts of 1926 and 1928, all the while continuing to keep spending down so as to reduce the overall federal debt.[124] By 1927, only the wealthiest 2% of taxpayers paid any federal income tax.[124] Federal spending remained flat during Coolidge's administration, allowing one-fourth of the federal debt to be retired in total. State and local governments saw considerable growth, however, surpassing the federal budget in 1927.[125] By 1929, after Coolidge's series of tax rate reductions had cut the tax rate to 24 percent on those making over $100,000, the federal government collected more than a billion dollars in income taxes, of which 65 percent was collected from those making over $100,000. In 1921, when the tax rate on people making over $100,000 a year was 73 percent, the federal government collected a little over $700 million in income taxes, of which 30 percent was paid by those making over $100,000.[126]

Opposition to farm subsidies

 
Coolidge with his vice president, Charles G. Dawes

Perhaps the most contentious issue of Coolidge's presidency was relief for farmers. Some in Congress proposed a bill designed to fight falling agricultural prices by allowing the federal government to purchase crops to sell abroad at lower prices.[127] Agriculture Secretary Henry C. Wallace and other administration officials favored the bill when it was introduced in 1924, but rising prices convinced many in Congress that the bill was unnecessary, and it was defeated just before the elections that year.[128] In 1926, with farm prices falling once more, Senator Charles L. McNary and Representative Gilbert N. Haugen – both Republicans – proposed the McNary–Haugen Farm Relief Bill. The bill proposed a federal farm board that would purchase surplus production in high-yield years and hold it (when feasible) for later sale or sell it abroad.[129] Coolidge opposed McNary-Haugen, declaring that agriculture must stand "on an independent business basis", and said that "government control cannot be divorced from political control."[129] Instead of manipulating prices, he favored instead Herbert Hoover's proposal to increase profitability by modernizing agriculture. Secretary Mellon wrote a letter denouncing the McNary-Haugen measure as unsound and likely to cause inflation, and it was defeated.[130]

After McNary-Haugen's defeat, Coolidge supported a less radical measure, the Curtis-Crisp Act, which would have created a federal board to lend money to farm co-operatives in times of surplus; the bill did not pass.[130] In February 1927, Congress took up the McNary-Haugen bill again, this time narrowly passing it, and Coolidge vetoed it.[131] In his veto message, he expressed the belief that the bill would do nothing to help farmers, benefiting only exporters and expanding the federal bureaucracy.[132] Congress did not override the veto, but it passed the bill again in May 1928 by an increased majority; again, Coolidge vetoed it.[131] "Farmers never have made much money," said Coolidge, the Vermont farmer's son. "I do not believe we can do much about it."[133]

Flood control

Coolidge has often been criticized for his actions during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the worst natural disaster to hit the Gulf Coast until Hurricane Katrina in 2005.[134] Although he did eventually name Secretary Hoover to a commission in charge of flood relief, scholars argue that Coolidge overall showed a lack of interest in federal flood control.[134] Coolidge did not believe that personally visiting the region after the floods would accomplish anything, and that it would be seen as mere political grandstanding. He also did not want to incur the federal spending that flood control would require; he believed property owners should bear much of the cost.[135] On the other hand, Congress wanted a bill that would place the federal government completely in charge of flood mitigation.[136] When Congress passed a compromise measure in 1928, Coolidge declined to take credit for it and signed the bill in private on May 15.[137]

Civil rights

 
Osage men with Coolidge after he signed the bill granting Native Americans U.S. citizenship

According to one biographer, Coolidge was "devoid of racial prejudice", but rarely took the lead on civil rights. Coolidge disliked the Ku Klux Klan and no Klansman is known to have received an appointment from him. In the 1924 presidential election his opponents (Robert La Follette and John Davis), and his running mate Charles Dawes, often attacked the Klan but Coolidge avoided the subject.[138] During his administration, lynchings of African-Americans decreased and millions of people left the Ku Klux Klan.[139]

Coolidge spoke in favor of the civil rights of African Americans, saying in his first State of the Union address that their rights were "just as sacred as those of any other citizen" under the U.S. Constitution and that it was a "public and a private duty to protect those rights."[140][141]

Coolidge repeatedly called for laws to make lynching a federal crime (it was already a state crime, though not always enforced). Congress refused to pass any such legislation. On June 2, 1924, Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted U.S. citizenship to all Native Americans living on reservations. (Those off reservations had long been citizens.) [142] On June 6, 1924, Coolidge delivered a commencement address at historically black, non-segregated Howard University, in which he thanked and commended African Americans for their rapid advances in education and their contributions to U.S. society over the years, as well as their eagerness to render their services as soldiers in the World War, all while being faced with discrimination and prejudices at home.[143]

In a speech in October 1924, Coolidge stressed tolerance of differences as an American value and thanked immigrants for their contributions to U.S. society, saying that they have "contributed much to making our country what it is." He stated that although the diversity of peoples was a detrimental source of conflict and tension in Europe, it was peculiar for the United States that it was a "harmonious" benefit for the country. Coolidge further stated the United States should assist and help immigrants who come to the country and urged immigrants to reject "race hatreds" and "prejudices".[144][page needed]

Foreign policy

 
Official portrait of Calvin Coolidge

Coolidge was neither well versed nor very interested in world affairs.[145] His focus was directed mainly at American business, especially pertaining to trade, and "Maintaining the Status Quo". Although not an isolationist, he was reluctant to enter into European involvements.[146] While Coolidge believed strongly in a non-interventionist foreign policy, he did believe that the United States was exceptional.[147]

Coolidge considered the 1920 Republican victory as a rejection of the Wilsonian position that the United States should join the League of Nations.[148] Coolidge believed the League did not serve American interests.[148] However, he spoke in favor of joining the Permanent Court of International Justice (World Court), provided that the nation would not be bound by advisory decisions.[149] In 1926, the Senate eventually approved joining the Court (with reservations).[150] The League of Nations accepted the reservations, but it suggested some modifications of its own.[151] The Senate failed to act and so the United States did not join the World Court.[151]

Coolidge authorized the Dawes Plan, a financial plan by Charles Dawes, to provide Germany partial relief from its reparations obligations from World War I. The plan initially provided stimulus for the German economy.[152] Additionally, Coolidge attempted to pursue further curbs on naval strength following the early successes of Harding's Washington Naval Conference by sponsoring the Geneva Naval Conference in 1927, which failed owing to a French and Italian boycott and ultimate failure of Great Britain and the United States to agree on cruiser tonnages. As a result, the conference was a failure and Congress eventually authorized for increased American naval spending in 1928.[153] The Kellogg–Briand Pact of 1928, named for Coolidge's Secretary of State, Frank B. Kellogg, and French foreign minister Aristide Briand, was also a key peacekeeping initiative. The treaty, ratified in 1929, committed signatories – the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan – to "renounce war, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another".[154] The treaty did not achieve its intended result – the outlawry of war – but it did provide the founding principle for international law after World War II.[155] Coolidge also continued the previous administration's policy of withholding recognition of the Soviet Union.[156]

Efforts were made to normalize ties with post-Revolution Mexico. Coolidge recognized Mexico's new governments under Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles, and continued American support for the elected Mexican government against the National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty during the Cristero War, lifting the arms embargo on that country; he also appointed Dwight Morrow as Ambassador to Mexico with the successful objective to avoid further American conflict with Mexico.[157][158][159]

Coolidge's administration would see continuity in the occupation of Nicaragua and Haiti, and an end to the occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1924 as a result of withdrawal agreements finalized during Harding's administration.[160] In 1925, Coolidge ordered the withdrawal of Marines stationed in Nicaragua following perceived stability after the 1924 Nicaraguan general election, but redeployed them there in January 1927 following failed attempts to peacefully resolve the rapid deterioration of political stability and avert the ensuing Constitutionalist War; Henry L. Stimson was later sent by Coolidge to mediate a peace deal that would end the civil war and extend American military presence in Nicaragua beyond Coolidge's term in office.[157]

To extend an olive branch to Latin American leaders embittered over America's interventionist policies in Central America and the Caribbean,[161] Coolidge led the U.S. delegation to the Sixth International Conference of American States, January 15–17, 1928, in Havana, Cuba, the only international trip Coolidge made during his presidency.[162] He would be the last sitting American president to visit Cuba until Barack Obama in 2016.[163]

For Canada, Coolidge authorized the St. Lawrence Seaway, a system of locks and canals that would provide large vessels passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes.[164][157]

Cabinet

 
Coolidge's cabinet in 1924, outside the White House.
Front row, left to right: Harry Stewart New, John W. Weeks, Charles Evans Hughes, Coolidge, Andrew Mellon, Harlan F. Stone, Curtis D. Wilbur.
Back row, left to right: James J. Davis, Henry C. Wallace, Herbert Hoover, Hubert Work.

Although a few of Harding's cabinet appointees were scandal-tarred, Coolidge initially retained all of them, out of an ardent conviction that as successor to a deceased elected president he was obligated to retain Harding's counselors and policies until the next election. He kept Harding's able speechwriter Judson T. Welliver; Stuart Crawford replaced Welliver in November 1925.[165] Coolidge appointed C. Bascom Slemp, a Virginia Congressman and experienced federal politician, to work jointly with Edward T. Clark, a Massachusetts Republican organizer whom he retained from his vice-presidential staff, as Secretaries to the President (a position equivalent to the modern White House Chief of Staff).[103]

Perhaps the most powerful person in Coolidge's Cabinet was Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, who controlled the administration's financial policies and was regarded by many, including House Minority Leader John Nance Garner, as more powerful than Coolidge himself.[166] Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover also held a prominent place in Coolidge's Cabinet, in part because Coolidge found value in Hoover's ability to win positive publicity with his pro-business proposals.[167] Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes directed Coolidge's foreign policy until he resigned in 1925 following Coolidge's re-election. He was replaced by Frank B. Kellogg, who had previously served as a senator and as the ambassador to Great Britain. Coolidge made two other appointments following his re-election, with William M. Jardine taking the position of Secretary of Agriculture and John G. Sargent becoming Attorney General.[168] Coolidge did not have a vice president during his first term, but Charles Dawes became vice president during Coolidge's second term, and Dawes and Coolidge clashed over farm policy and other issues.[169]

Judicial appointments

 
Coolidge appointed Harlan F. Stone first as Attorney General and then as a Supreme Court Justice.

Coolidge appointed one justice to the Supreme Court of the United States, Harlan F. Stone in 1925. Stone was Coolidge's fellow Amherst alumnus, a Wall Street lawyer and conservative Republican. Stone was serving as dean of Columbia Law School when Coolidge appointed him to be attorney general in 1924 to restore the reputation tarnished by Harding's Attorney General, Harry M. Daugherty.[170] It does not appear that Coolidge considered appointing anyone other than Stone, although Stone himself had urged Coolidge to appoint Benjamin N. Cardozo.[171] Stone proved to be a firm believer in judicial restraint and was regarded as one of the court's three liberal justices who would often vote to uphold New Deal legislation.[172] President Franklin D. Roosevelt later appointed Stone to be chief justice.

Coolidge nominated 17 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals and 61 judges to the United States district courts. He appointed judges to various specialty courts as well, including Genevieve R. Cline, who became the first woman named to the federal judiciary when Coolidge placed her on the United States Customs Court in 1928.[173] Coolidge also signed the Judiciary Act of 1925 into law, allowing the Supreme Court more discretion over its workload.

1928 election

Collection of video clips of President Coolidge

In the summer of 1927, Coolidge vacationed in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where he engaged in horseback riding and fly fishing and attended rodeos. He made Custer State Park his "summer White House". While on vacation, Coolidge surprisingly issued a terse statement that he would not seek a second full term as president: "I do not choose to run for President in 1928."[174] After allowing the reporters to take that in, Coolidge elaborated. "If I take another term, I will be in the White House till 1933 … Ten years in Washington is longer than any other man has had it – too long!"[175] In his memoirs, Coolidge explained his decision not to run: "The Presidential office takes a heavy toll of those who occupy it and those who are dear to them. While we should not refuse to spend and be spent in the service of our country, it is hazardous to attempt what we feel is beyond our strength to accomplish."[176] After leaving office, he and Grace returned to Northampton, where he wrote his memoirs. The Republicans retained the White House in 1928 with a landslide by Herbert Hoover. Coolidge had been reluctant to endorse Hoover as his successor; on one occasion he remarked that "for six years that man has given me unsolicited advice – all of it bad."[177] Even so, Coolidge had no desire to split the party by publicly opposing the nomination of the popular commerce secretary.[178]

Post-presidency (1929–1933)

 
Coolidge addressing a crowd at Arlington National Cemetery's Roman-style Memorial Amphitheater in 1924

After his presidency, Coolidge retired to a spacious home in Northampton, "The Beeches".[179] He kept a Hacker runabout boat on the Connecticut River and was often observed on the water by local boating enthusiasts. During this period, he also served as chairman of the Non-Partisan Railroad Commission, an entity created by several banks and corporations to survey the country's long-term transportation needs and make recommendations for improvements. He was an honorary president of the American Foundation for the Blind, a director of New York Life Insurance Company, president of the American Antiquarian Society, and a trustee of Amherst College.[180]

Coolidge published his autobiography in 1929 and wrote a syndicated newspaper column, "Calvin Coolidge Says", from 1930 to 1931.[181] Faced with a Democratic landslide in the 1932 presidential election, some Republicans spoke of rejecting Hoover as their party's nominee, and instead drafting Coolidge to run. Coolidge made it clear that he was not interested in running again, and that he would publicly repudiate any effort to draft him.[182] Hoover was renominated, and Coolidge made several radio addresses in support of him. Hoover then lost the general election to Coolidge's 1920 vice presidential Democratic opponent Franklin D. Roosevelt in a landslide.[183]

Death

Coolidge died suddenly from coronary thrombosis at "The Beeches", at 12:45 p.m., January 5, 1933, at age 60.[184] Shortly before his death, Coolidge confided to an old friend: "I feel I no longer fit in with these times."[185] Coolidge is buried in Plymouth Notch Cemetery, Plymouth Notch, Vermont. The nearby family home is maintained as one of the original buildings on the Calvin Coolidge Homestead District site. The State of Vermont dedicated a new visitors' center nearby to mark Coolidge's 100th birthday on July 4, 1972.

Radio, film, and commemorations

 
Coolidge with reporters and cameramen

Despite his reputation as a quiet and even reclusive politician, Coolidge made use of the new medium of radio and made radio history several times while president. He made himself available to reporters, giving 520 press conferences, meeting with reporters more regularly than any president before or since.[186] Coolidge's second inauguration was the first presidential inauguration broadcast on radio. On December 6, 1923, his speech to Congress was broadcast on radio,[187] the first presidential radio address.[188] Coolidge signed the Radio Act of 1927, which assigned regulation of radio to the newly created Federal Radio Commission. On August 11, 1924, Theodore W. Case, using the Phonofilm sound-on-film process he developed for Lee de Forest, filmed Coolidge on the White House lawn, making "Silent Cal" the first president to appear in a sound film. The title of the DeForest film was President Coolidge, Taken on the White House Grounds.[189][190] When Charles Lindbergh arrived in Washington on a U.S. Navy ship after his celebrated 1927 trans-Atlantic flight, President Coolidge welcomed him back to the U.S. and presented him with the Medal of Honor;[191] the event was captured on film.[192]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Coolidge was Vice President under Warren G. Harding and became president upon Harding's death on August 2, 1923. As this was prior to the adoption of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967, a vacancy in the office of vice president was not filled until the next ensuing election and inauguration.
  2. ^ See also the main article, Lawrence textile strike, for a full description.
  3. ^ The exact total was 1,117 out of 1,544[61]
  4. ^ The tally was Coolidge 317,774, Long 192,673.[70]

References

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  3. ^ McCoy 1967, pp. 420–421; Greenberg 2006, pp. 49–53.
  4. ^ Fuess 1940, p. 500.
  5. ^ Sobel 1998a, pp. 12–13; Greenberg 2006, pp. 1–7.
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  162. ^ Historian 2018.
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  171. ^ Handler 1995, pp. 113–122.
  172. ^ Galston, passim.
  173. ^ Freeman 2002, p. 216.
  174. ^ Sobel 1998a, p. 370.
  175. ^ White 1938, p. 361.
  176. ^ Coolidge 1929, p. 239.
  177. ^ Ferrell 1998, p. 195.
  178. ^ Clemens & Daggett 1945, pp. 147–63.
  179. ^ Sobel 1998a, p. 407.
  180. ^ Fuess 1940, pp. 450–455.
  181. ^ Sobel 1998a, p. 403; Ferrell 1998, pp. 201–202.
  182. ^ Fuess 1940, pp. 457–459; Greenberg 2006, p. 153.
  183. ^ Fuess 1940, p. 460.
  184. ^ Greenberg 2006, pp. 154–155.
  185. ^ Sobel 1998a, p. 410.
  186. ^ Greenberg 2006, p. 7.
  187. ^ Sobel 1998a, p. 252.
  188. ^ Williams, Emrys (1967). "The Presidential address". Radio and Electronic Engineer. 33 (1): 1. doi:10.1049/ree.1967.0001. ISSN 0033-7722.
  189. ^ de Forest 1924.
  190. ^ Mashon, Mike (November 3, 2016). "Silent Cal, Not So Silent | Now See Hear!". blogs.loc.gov. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  191. ^ "Medal of Honor will be awarded to Lindbergh". UPI. May 23, 1927. Retrieved February 9, 2019.
  192. ^ Unknown (1927). "Lindbergh honored by President Calvin Coolidge". Periscope Film. Archived from the original on November 24, 2021. Retrieved February 9, 2019.

Works cited

External video
  Q&A interview with Amity Shlaes on Coolidge, February 10, 2013, C-SPAN
  Booknotes interview with Robert Sobel on Coolidge: An American Enigma, August 30, 1998, C-SPAN

About Coolidge and his era

  • "Confirms Daugherty's Story of Coolidge's Second Oath". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. St. Louis, Missouri. Associated Press. February 2, 1932. p. 1C. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  • Barry, John M. (1997). Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0684840024.
  • Buckley, Kerry W. (December 2003). "'A President for the "Great Silent Majority': Bruce Barton's Construction of Calvin Coolidge". The New England Quarterly. 76 (4): 593–626. doi:10.2307/1559844. JSTOR 1559844.
  • Bryson, Bill (2013), One Summer: America, 1927, New York: Doubleday, ISBN 978-0767919401
  • Clemens, Cyril; Daggett, Athern P. (1945), "Coolidge's "I Do Not Choose to Run": Granite or Putty?", The New England Quarterly, 18 (2): 147–163, doi:10.2307/361282, JSTOR 361282
  • Cordery, Stacy A. (2008). Alice: Alice Roosevelt Longworth, from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0143114277.
  • Deloria, Vincent (1992). American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0806124247.
  • Ferrell, Robert H. (1998). The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0700608928.
  • Freeman, Jo (2002). A Room at a Time: How Women Entered Party Politics. Rowman and Littlefield. ISBN 978-0847698059.
  • de Forest, Lee (1924). "President Coolidge, Taken on the White House Ground (1924)". Retrieved February 4, 2007.
  • Fuess, Claude Moore (1940). Calvin Coolidge: The Man from Vermont. Little, Brown. ISBN 978-1406756739.
  • Galston, Miriam (November 1995). "Activism and Restraint: The Evolution of Harlan Fiske Stone's Judicial Philosophy". Tulane Law Revue. 70: 137.
  • Gilbert, Robert E. (2005). "Calvin Coolidge's Tragic Presidency: the Political Effects of Bereavement and Depression". Journal of American Studies. 39 (1): 87–109. doi:10.1017/S0021875805009266. JSTOR 27557598.
  • Greenberg, David (2006). Calvin Coolidge. The American Presidents Series. Times Books. ISBN 978-0805069570.
  • Handler, Milton C. (December 1995). "Clerking for Justice Harlan Fiske Stone". Journal of Supreme Court History. 20 (1): 113–122. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5818.1995.tb00098.x. ISSN 1059-4329.
  • Historian (2018). "Travels of President Calvin Coolidge". U.S. Department of State Office of the Historian.
  • Kappler, Charles (1929). . Government Printing Office. Archived from the original on October 11, 2008. Retrieved October 14, 2008.
  • Kim, Susanna (December 18, 2014). . ABC News. Archived from the original on January 6, 2017. Retrieved March 1, 2016.
  • Landry, Alysa (July 26, 2016). . IndianCountryToday.com. Archived from the original on August 4, 2019. Retrieved June 11, 2018.
  • Madsen, Deborah L., ed. (2015). The Routledge Companion to Native American Literature. Routledge. p. 168. ISBN 978-1317693192.
  • Martin, Douglas (June 4, 2000). "John Coolidge, Guardian of President's Legacy. Dies at 93". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 31, 2018.
  • McCoy, Donald R. (1967). Calvin Coolidge: The Quiet President. Macmillan. ISBN 978-1468017779.
  • Miller Center (2016). . millercenter.org. Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. Archived from the original on February 20, 2016. Retrieved February 24, 2016.
  • Polsky, Andrew J.; Tkacheva, Olesya (Winter 2002). "Legacies versus Politics: Herbert Hoover, Partisan Conflict, and the Symbolic Appeal of Associationalism in the 1920s" (PDF). International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. 16 (2): 207–235. doi:10.1023/A:1020525029722. hdl:2027.42/43975. JSTOR 20020160. S2CID 142508983. (PDF) from the original on August 20, 2017.
  • Roberts, Gary Boyd (1995). "Ancestors of American Presidents". The Bimonthly Newsletter of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. 15: 199.
  • Roberts, Jason (2014). "The Biographical Legacy of Calvin Coolidge and the 1924 Presidential Election". In Katherine A. S. Sibley (ed.). A Companion to Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. Wiley Blackwell. ISBN 978-1118834473.
  • Rusnak, Robert J. (Spring 1983). "Andrew W. Mellon: Reluctant Kingmaker". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 13 (2): 269–278. JSTOR 27547924.
  • Russell, Francis (1975). A City in Terror: Calvin Coolidge and the 1919 Boston Police Strike. Beacon Press. ISBN 978-0807050330.
  • Senate Historian (2014). . US Senate. Archived from the original on November 6, 2014. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  • Shlaes, Amity (2013). Coolidge. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0061967559.
  • Sobel, Robert (1998a). Coolidge: An American Enigma. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 978-0895264107.
  • Sobel, Robert (1998b). . John F. Kennedy Library and Museum. Archived from the original on March 8, 2006.
  • White, William Allen (1938). A Puritan in Babylon: The Story of Calvin Coolidge. Macmillan.

By Coolidge

  • Coolidge, Calvin (1919). Have Faith in Massachusetts: A Collection of Speeches and Messages (2nd ed.). Houghton Mifflin.
  • Coolidge, Calvin (2004) [1926]. Foundations of the Republic: Speeches and Addresses. University Press of the Pacific. ISBN 978-1410215987.
  • Coolidge, Calvin (1929). The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge. Cosmopolitan Book Corp. ISBN 978-0944951033.
  • Coolidge, Calvin (2001). Peter Hannaford (ed.). The Quotable Calvin Coolidge: Sensible Words for a New Century. Images From The Past, Incorporated. ISBN 978-1884592331.

Further reading

  • Ferrell, Robert H. (2008). Grace Coolidge: The People's Lady in Silent Cal's White House. ISBN 978-0700615636. LCCN 2007045737.
  • Felzenberg, Alvin S. (Fall 1998). "Calvin Coolidge and Race: His Record in Dealing with the Racial Tensions of the 1920s". New England Journal of History. 55 (1): 83–96.
  • Fuess, Claude M. (1953), "Calvin Coolidge – Twenty Years After" (PDF), Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, 63 (2): 351–369
  • Hatfield, Mark O. (1997). "Calvin Coolidge (1921–1923)". Vice Presidents of the United States, 1789–1993. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 347–354.
  • Postell, Joseph W. "Roaring Against Progressivism: The Principled Conservatism of Calvin Coolidge," in Joseph W. Postell and Johnathan O'Neill, eds. Toward an American Conservatism: Constitutional Conservatism during the Progressive Era (2013) pp. 181–208.
  • Russell, Francis. “Coolidge and the Boston Police Strike.” Antioch Review 16#4 (1956), pp. 403–15. online
  • Tacoma, Thomas J. The Political Thought of Calvin Coolidge: Burkean Americanist (Lexington Books, 2020).
  • Tacoma, Thomas. "Calvin Coolidge and the Great Depression: A New Assessment." Independent Review 24.3 (2019): 361–380. online
  • Zibel, Howard J. "The Role of Calvin Coolidge in the Boston Police Strike of 1919," Industrial and Labor Relations Forum 6, no. 3 (November 1969): 299–318

Primary sources

External links

calvin, coolidge, this, article, about, president, united, states, grandfather, calvin, galusha, coolidge, john, redirects, here, father, john, born, john, july, 1872, january, 1933, american, attorney, politician, served, 30th, president, united, states, from. This article is about the president of the United States For his grandfather see Calvin Galusha Coolidge John Calvin Coolidge redirects here For his father see John Calvin Coolidge Sr Calvin Coolidge born John Calvin Coolidge Jr 1 ˈ k uː l ɪ dʒ July 4 1872 January 5 1933 was an American attorney and politician who served as the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929 Calvin CoolidgeCoolidge in 191930th President of the United StatesIn office August 2 1923 March 4 1929Vice PresidentNone 1923 1925 a Charles G Dawes 1925 1929 Preceded byWarren G HardingSucceeded byHerbert Hoover29th Vice President of the United StatesIn office March 4 1921 August 2 1923PresidentWarren G HardingPreceded byThomas R MarshallSucceeded byCharles G Dawes48th Governor of MassachusettsIn office January 2 1919 January 6 1921LieutenantChanning H CoxPreceded bySamuel W McCallSucceeded byChanning H Cox46th Lieutenant Governor of MassachusettsIn office January 6 1916 January 2 1919GovernorSamuel W McCallPreceded byGrafton D CushingSucceeded byChanning H CoxPresident of the Massachusetts SenateIn office January 7 1914 January 6 1915Preceded byLevi H GreenwoodSucceeded byHenry Gordon WellsMember of the Massachusetts SenateIn office January 3 1912 January 6 1915Preceded byAllen T TreadwaySucceeded byJohn B HullConstituencyBerkshire Hampden and Hampshire counties16th Mayor of NorthamptonIn office January 3 1910 January 1 1912Preceded byJames W O BrienSucceeded byWilliam FeikerMember of theMassachusetts House of RepresentativesIn office January 2 1907 January 6 1909Preceded byMoses M BassettSucceeded byCharles A MontgomeryConstituency1st HampshirePersonal detailsBornJohn Calvin Coolidge Jr 1872 07 04 July 4 1872Plymouth Notch Vermont U S DiedJanuary 5 1933 1933 01 05 aged 60 Northampton Massachusetts U S Resting placePlymouth Notch CemeteryPolitical partyRepublicanSpouseGrace Goodhue m 1905 wbr ChildrenJohn Calvin Jr ParentJohn Calvin Coolidge Sr father RelativesCalvin Galusha Coolidge grandfather EducationAmherst College AB OccupationPoliticianlawyerSignatureCalvin Coolidge s voice source source On government spendingRecorded July 4 1920Born in Vermont Coolidge was a Republican lawyer from New England who climbed up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics becoming the state s 48th governor his response to the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight as a man of decisive action Coolidge was elected the country s 29th vice president the next year succeeding the presidency upon the sudden death of President Warren G Harding in 1923 Elected in his own right in 1924 Coolidge gained a reputation as a small government conservative distinguished by a taciturn personality and dry sense of humor receiving the nickname Silent Cal Though his widespread popularity enabled him to run for a third term he chose not to run again in 1928 remarking that ten years as president was at the time longer than any other man has had it too long Throughout his gubernatorial career Coolidge ran on the record of fiscal conservatism strong support for women s suffrage and a vague opposition to Prohibition 2 During his presidency he restored public confidence in the White House after the many scandals of the Harding administration He signed into law the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 which granted U S citizenship to all Native Americans and oversaw a period of rapid and expansive economic growth known as the Roaring Twenties leaving office with considerable popularity 3 He was known for his hands off governing approach and pro business stances As a Coolidge biographer wrote He embodied the spirit and hopes of the middle class could interpret their longings and express their opinions That he did represent the genius of the average is the most convincing proof of his strength 4 Scholars have ranked Coolidge in the lower half of U S presidents He gains almost universal praise for his stalwart support of racial equality during a period of heightened racial tension in the United States 5 and is highly praised by advocates of smaller government and laissez faire economics while supporters of an active central government generally view him far less favorably His critics argue that he failed to use the country s economic boom to help struggling farmers and workers in other flailing industries 6 and there is still much debate among historians as to the extent to which Coolidge s economic policies contributed to the onset of the Great Depression 7 Contents 1 Early life and family history 2 Early career and marriage 2 1 Education and law practice 2 2 Marriage and family 3 Local political office 1898 1915 3 1 City offices 3 2 Massachusetts state legislator and mayor 4 Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Massachusetts 1916 1921 4 1 1918 election 4 2 Boston Police Strike 4 3 1919 election 4 4 Legislation and vetoes as governor 5 Vice presidency 1921 1923 5 1 1920 election 5 2 Silent Cal 6 Presidency 1923 1929 6 1 1924 election 6 2 Industry and trade 6 3 Taxation and government spending 6 4 Opposition to farm subsidies 6 5 Flood control 6 6 Civil rights 6 7 Foreign policy 6 8 Cabinet 6 9 Judicial appointments 6 10 1928 election 7 Post presidency 1929 1933 7 1 Death 8 Radio film and commemorations 9 See also 10 Notes 11 References 12 Works cited 12 1 About Coolidge and his era 12 2 By Coolidge 13 Further reading 13 1 Primary sources 14 External linksEarly life and family historyJohn Calvin Coolidge Jr was born on July 4 1872 in Plymouth Notch Vermont the only U S president to be born on Independence Day He was the elder of the two children of John Calvin Coolidge Sr 1845 1926 and Victoria Josephine Moor 1846 1885 Although named for his father John from early childhood Coolidge was addressed by his middle name Calvin His middle name was selected in honor of John Calvin a founder of the Congregational church in which Coolidge was raised and remained active throughout his life 8 Coolidge Senior engaged in many occupations and developed a statewide reputation as a prosperous farmer storekeeper and public servant He held various local offices including justice of the peace and tax collector and served in the Vermont House of Representatives as well as the Vermont Senate 9 Coolidge s mother was the daughter of Hiram Dunlap Moor a Plymouth Notch farmer and Abigail Franklin 10 She was chronically ill and died at the age of 39 perhaps from tuberculosis when Coolidge was 12 years old His younger sister Abigail Grace Coolidge 1875 1890 died at the age of 15 probably of appendicitis when Coolidge was 18 Coolidge s father married a Plymouth schoolteacher in 1891 and lived to the age of 80 11 Coolidge s family had deep roots in New England The earliest American ancestor John Coolidge emigrated from Cottenham Cambridgeshire England around 1630 and settled in Watertown Massachusetts 12 Coolidge s great great grandfather also named John Coolidge was an American military officer in the Revolutionary War and one of the first selectmen of the town of Plymouth 13 His grandfather Calvin Galusha Coolidge served in the Vermont House of Representatives 14 Coolidge was also a descendant of Samuel Appleton who settled in Ipswich and led the Massachusetts Bay Colony during King Philip s War 15 The Coolidge Homestead in Plymouth Notch Vermont Coolidge as an Amherst College undergraduateEarly career and marriageEducation and law practice Professor Charles Edward Garman Coolidge attended Black River Academy and then St Johnsbury Academy before enrolling at Amherst College where he distinguished himself in the debating class As a senior he joined the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and graduated cum laude While at Amherst Coolidge was profoundly influenced by philosophy professor Charles Edward Garman a Congregational mystic who had a neo Hegelian philosophy Coolidge explained Garman s ethics forty years later T here is a standard of righteousness that might does not make right that the end does not justify the means and that expediency as a working principle is bound to fail The only hope of perfecting human relationships is in accordance with the law of service under which men are not so solicitous about what they shall get as they are about what they shall give Yet people are entitled to the rewards of their industry What they earn is theirs no matter how small or how great But the possession of property carries the obligation to use it in a larger service 16 At his father s urging after graduation Coolidge moved to Northampton Massachusetts to become a lawyer Coolidge followed the common practice of apprenticing with a local law firm Hammond amp Field and reading law with them John C Hammond and Henry P Field both Amherst graduates introduced Coolidge to law practice in the county seat of Hampshire County Massachusetts In 1897 Coolidge was admitted to the Massachusetts bar becoming a country lawyer 17 With his savings and a small inheritance from his grandfather Coolidge opened his own law office in Northampton in 1898 He practiced commercial law believing that he served his clients best by staying out of court As his reputation as a hard working and diligent attorney grew local banks and other businesses began to retain his services 18 Marriage and family Grace Coolidge In 1903 Coolidge met Grace Goodhue a University of Vermont graduate and teacher at Northampton s Clarke School for the Deaf They married on October 4 1905 at 2 30 p m in a small ceremony which took place in the parlor of Grace s family s house having overcome her mother s objections to the marriage 19 The newlyweds went on a honeymoon trip to Montreal originally planned for two weeks but cut short by a week at Coolidge s request After 25 years he wrote of Grace for almost a quarter of a century she has borne with my infirmities and I have rejoiced in her graces 20 The Coolidges had two sons John 1906 2000 and Calvin Jr 1908 1924 On June 30 1924 Calvin Jr had played tennis with his brother on the White House tennis courts without putting on socks and developed a blister on one of his toes The blister subsequently degenerated into sepsis Calvin Jr died a little over a week later at the age of 16 21 The President never forgave himself for Calvin Jr s death 22 His eldest son John said it hurt Coolidge terribly and psychiatric biographer Robert E Gilbert author of The Tormented President Calvin Coolidge Death and Clinical Depression said that Coolidge ceased to function as President after the death of his sixteen year old son Gilbert explains in his book how Coolidge displayed all ten of the symptoms listed by the American Psychiatric Association as evidence of major depressive disorder following Calvin Jr s sudden death 23 John later became a railroad executive helped to start the Coolidge Foundation and was instrumental in creating the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site 24 Coolidge was frugal and when it came to securing a home he insisted upon renting He and his wife attended Northampton s Edwards Congregational Church before and after his presidency 25 26 Local political office 1898 1915 City offices The Republican Party was dominant in New England at the time and Coolidge followed the example of Hammond and Field by becoming active in local politics 27 In 1896 Coolidge campaigned for Republican presidential candidate William McKinley and was selected to be a member of the Republican City Committee the next year 28 In 1898 he won election to the City Council of Northampton placing second in a ward where the top three candidates were elected 27 The position offered no salary but provided Coolidge with valuable political experience 29 In 1899 he was chosen City Solicitor by the City Council He was elected for a one year term in 1900 and reelected in 1901 30 This position gave Coolidge more experience as a lawyer and paid a salary of 600 equivalent to 19 543 in 2021 30 In 1902 the city council selected a Democrat for city solicitor and Coolidge returned to private practice Soon thereafter however the clerk of courts for the county died and Coolidge was chosen to replace him The position paid well but it barred him from practicing law so he remained at the job for only one year 31 In 1904 Coolidge suffered his sole defeat at the ballot box losing an election to the Northampton school board When told that some of his neighbors voted against him because he had no children in the schools he would govern the recently married Coolidge replied Might give me time 31 Massachusetts state legislator and mayor Coolidge as a State Representative in 1908 See also 134th Massachusetts General Court 1913 135th Massachusetts General Court 1914 and 136th Massachusetts General Court 1915 In 1906 the local Republican committee nominated Coolidge for election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives He won a close victory over the incumbent Democrat and reported to Boston for the 1907 session of the Massachusetts General Court 32 In his freshman term Coolidge served on minor committees and although he usually voted with the party was known as a Progressive Republican voting in favor of such measures as women s suffrage and the direct election of Senators 33 While in Boston Coolidge became an ally and then a liegeman of then U S Senator Winthrop Murray Crane who controlled the western faction of the Massachusetts Republican Party Crane s party rival in the east of the commonwealth was U S Senator Henry Cabot Lodge 34 Coolidge forged another key strategic alliance with Guy Currier who had served in both state houses and had the social distinction wealth personal charm and broad circle of friends which Coolidge lacked and which would have a lasting impact on his political career 35 In 1907 he was elected to a second term and in the 1908 session Coolidge was more outspoken though not in a leadership position 36 Coolidge s home 1906 1930 in Northampton Massachusetts Instead of vying for another term in the State House Coolidge returned home to his growing family and ran for mayor of Northampton when the incumbent Democrat retired He was well liked in the town and defeated his challenger by a vote of 1 597 to 1 409 37 During his first term 1910 to 1911 he increased teachers salaries and retired some of the city s debt while still managing to effect a slight tax decrease 38 He was renominated in 1911 and defeated the same opponent by a slightly larger margin 39 In 1911 the State Senator for the Hampshire County area retired and successfully encouraged Coolidge to run for his seat for the 1912 session Coolidge defeated his Democratic opponent by a large margin 40 At the start of that term he became chairman of a committee to arbitrate the Bread and Roses strike by the workers of the American Woolen Company in Lawrence Massachusetts b After two tense months the company agreed to the workers demands in a settlement proposed by the committee 41 A major issue affecting Massachusetts Republicans that year was the party split between the progressive wing which favored Theodore Roosevelt and the conservative wing which favored William Howard Taft Although he favored some progressive measures Coolidge refused to leave the Republican party 42 When the new Progressive Party declined to run a candidate in his state senate district Coolidge won reelection against his Democratic opponent by an increased margin 42 Do the day s work If it be to protect the rights of the weak whoever objects do it If it be to help a powerful corporation better to serve the people whatever the opposition do that Expect to be called a stand patter but don t be a stand patter Expect to be called a demagogue but don t be a demagogue Don t hesitate to be as revolutionary as science Don t hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table Don t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong Don t hurry to legislate Give administration a chance to catch up with legislation Have Faith in Massachusetts as delivered by Calvin Coolidge to the Massachusetts State Senate 1914 43 In the 1913 session Coolidge enjoyed renowned success in arduously navigating to passage the Western Trolley Act which connected Northampton with a dozen similar industrial communities in western Massachusetts 44 Coolidge intended to retire after his second term as was the custom but when the president of the state senate Levi H Greenwood considered running for lieutenant governor Coolidge decided to run again for the Senate in the hopes of being elected as its presiding officer 45 Although Greenwood later decided to run for reelection to the Senate he was defeated primarily due to his opposition to women s suffrage Coolidge was in favor of the women s vote won his re election and with Crane s help assumed the presidency of a closely divided Senate 46 After his election in January 1914 Coolidge delivered a published and frequently quoted speech entitled Have Faith in Massachusetts which summarized his philosophy of government 43 Coolidge s speech was well received and he attracted some admirers on its account 47 towards the end of the term many of them were proposing his name for nomination to lieutenant governor After winning reelection to the Senate by an increased margin in the 1914 elections Coolidge was reelected unanimously to be President of the Senate 48 Coolidge s supporters led by fellow Amherst alumnus Frank Stearns encouraged him again to run for lieutenant governor 49 Stearns an executive with the Boston department store R H Stearns became another key ally and began a publicity campaign on Coolidge s behalf before he announced his candidacy at the end of the 1915 legislative session 50 Lieutenant Governor and Governor of Massachusetts 1916 1921 Coolidge with his family 1900 Coolidge entered the primary election for lieutenant governor and was nominated to run alongside gubernatorial candidate Samuel W McCall Coolidge was the leading vote getter in the Republican primary and balanced the Republican ticket by adding a western presence to McCall s eastern base of support 51 McCall and Coolidge won the 1915 election to their respective one year terms with Coolidge defeating his opponent by more than 50 000 votes 52 In Massachusetts the lieutenant governor does not preside over the state Senate as is the case in many other states nevertheless as lieutenant governor Coolidge was a deputy governor functioning as an administrative inspector and was a member of the governor s council He was also chairman of the finance committee and the pardons committee 53 As a full time elected official Coolidge discontinued his law practice in 1916 though his family continued to live in Northampton 54 McCall and Coolidge were both reelected in 1916 and again in 1917 When McCall decided that he would not stand for a fourth term Coolidge announced his intention to run for governor 55 1918 election Coolidge was unopposed for the Republican nomination for Governor of Massachusetts in 1918 He and his running mate Channing Cox a Boston lawyer and Speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives ran on the previous administration s record fiscal conservatism a vague opposition to Prohibition support for women s suffrage and support for American involvement in World War I 2 The issue of the war proved divisive especially among Irish and German Americans 56 Coolidge was elected by a margin of 16 773 votes over his opponent Richard H Long in the smallest margin of victory of any of his statewide campaigns 57 Boston Police Strike Main article Boston Police Strike In 1919 in reaction to a plan of the policemen of the Boston Police Department to register with a union Police Commissioner Edwin U Curtis announced that such an act would not be tolerated In August of that year the American Federation of Labor issued a charter to the Boston Police Union 58 Curtis declared the union s leaders were guilty of insubordination and would be relieved of duty but indicated he would cancel their suspension if the union was dissolved by September 4 59 The mayor of Boston Andrew Peters convinced Curtis to delay his action for a few days but with no results and Curtis suspended the union leaders on September 8 60 The following day about three quarters of the policemen in Boston went on strike 61 c Coolidge tacitly but fully in support of Curtis position closely monitored the situation but initially deferred to the local authorities He anticipated that only a resulting measure of lawlessness could sufficiently prompt the public to understand and appreciate the controlling principle that a policeman does not strike That night and the next there was sporadic violence and rioting in the unruly city 62 Peters concerned about sympathy strikes by the firemen and others called up some units of the Massachusetts National Guard stationed in the Boston area pursuant to an old and obscure legal authority and relieved Curtis of duty 63 Your assertion that the Commissioner was wrong cannot justify the wrong of leaving the city unguarded That furnished the opportunity the criminal element furnished the action There is no right to strike against the public safety by anyone anywhere any time I am equally determined to defend the sovereignty of Massachusetts and to maintain the authority and jurisdiction over her public officers where it has been placed by the Constitution and laws of her people Telegram from Governor Calvin Coolidge to Samuel Gompers September 14 1919 64 Coolidge sensing the severity of circumstances were then in need of his intervention conferred with Crane s operative William Butler and then acted 65 He called up more units of the National Guard restored Curtis to office and took personal control of the police force 66 Curtis proclaimed that all of the strikers were fired from their jobs and Coolidge called for a new police force to be recruited 67 That night Coolidge received a telegram from AFL leader Samuel Gompers Whatever disorder has occurred Gompers wrote is due to Curtis s order in which the right of the policemen has been denied 68 Coolidge publicly answered Gompers s telegram denying any justification whatsoever for the strike and his response launched him into the national consciousness 68 Newspapers across the nation picked up on Coolidge s statement and he became the newest hero to opponents of the strike Amid of the First Red Scare many Americans were terrified of the spread of communist revolutions like those that had taken place in Russia Hungary and Germany While Coolidge had lost some friends among organized labor conservatives across the nation had seen a rising star 69 Although he usually acted with deliberation the Boston police strike gave him a national reputation as a decisive leader and as a strict enforcer of law and order 1919 election Coolidge inspects militia in Boston police strike Coolidge and Cox were renominated for their respective offices in 1919 By this time Coolidge s supporters especially Stearns had publicized his actions in the Police Strike around the state and the nation and some of Coolidge s speeches were published in book form 43 He faced the same opponent as in 1918 Richard Long but this time Coolidge defeated him by 125 101 votes more than seven times his margin of victory from a year earlier d His actions in the police strike combined with the massive electoral victory led to suggestions that Coolidge run for president in 1920 71 Legislation and vetoes as governor By the time Coolidge was inaugurated on January 2 1919 the First World War had ended and Coolidge pushed the legislature to give a 100 bonus equivalent to 1 563 in 2021 to Massachusetts veterans He also signed a bill reducing the work week for women and children from fifty four hours to forty eight saying We must humanize the industry or the system will break down 72 He signed into law a budget that kept the tax rates the same while trimming 4 million from expenditures thus allowing the state to retire some of its debt 73 Coolidge also wielded the veto pen as governor His most publicized veto prevented an increase in legislators pay by 50 74 Although Coolidge was personally opposed to Prohibition he vetoed a bill in May 1920 that would have allowed the sale of beer or wine of 2 75 alcohol or less in Massachusetts in violation of the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution Opinions and instructions do not outmatch the Constitution he said in his veto message Against it they are void 75 Vice presidency 1921 1923 1920 election Main article 1920 United States presidential election An original Harding Coolidge campaign button At the 1920 Republican National Convention most of the delegates were selected by state party caucuses not primaries As such the field was divided among many local favorites 76 Coolidge was one such candidate and while he placed as high as sixth in the voting the powerful party bosses running the convention primarily the party s U S Senators never considered him seriously 77 After ten ballots the bosses and then the delegates settled on Senator Warren G Harding of Ohio as their nominee for president 78 When the time came to select a vice presidential nominee the bosses also made and announced their decision on whom they wanted Sen Irvine Lenroot of Wisconsin and then prematurely departed after his name was put forth relying on the rank and file to confirm their decision A delegate from Oregon Wallace McCamant having read Have Faith in Massachusetts proposed Coolidge for vice president instead The suggestion caught on quickly with the masses starving for an act of independence from the absent bosses and Coolidge was unexpectedly nominated 79 The Democrats nominated another Ohioan James M Cox for president and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy Franklin D Roosevelt for vice president The question of the United States joining the League of Nations was a major issue in the campaign as was the unfinished legacy of Progressivism 80 Harding ran a front porch campaign from his home in Marion Ohio but Coolidge took to the campaign trail in the Upper South New York and New England his audiences carefully limited to those familiar with Coolidge and those placing a premium upon concise and short speeches 81 On November 2 1920 Harding and Coolidge were victorious in a landslide winning more than 60 percent of the popular vote including every state outside the South 80 They also won in Tennessee the first time a Republican ticket had won a Southern state since Reconstruction 80 Silent Cal President Harding and Vice President Coolidge with their wives The U S vice presidency did not carry many official duties but Coolidge was invited by President Harding to attend cabinet meetings making him the first vice president to do so 82 He gave a number of unremarkable speeches around the country 83 As vice president Coolidge and his vivacious wife Grace were invited to quite a few parties where the legend of Silent Cal was born It is from this time that most of the jokes and anecdotes involving Coolidge originate such as Coolidge being silent in five languages 84 Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker in private he was a man of few words and was commonly referred to as Silent Cal An apocryphal story has it that a person seated next to him at a dinner said to him I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you He replied You lose 85 However on April 22 1924 Coolidge himself said that the You lose quotation never occurred The story about it was related by Frank B Noyes President of the Associated Press to their membership at their annual luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel when toasting and introducing Coolidge who was the invited speaker After the introduction and before his prepared remarks Coolidge said to the membership Your President referring to Noyes has given you a perfect example of one of those rumors now current in Washington which is without any foundation 86 Coolidge often seemed uncomfortable among fashionable Washington society when asked why he continued to attend so many of their dinner parties he replied Got to eat somewhere 87 Alice Roosevelt Longworth a leading Republican wit underscored Coolidge s silence and his dour personality When he wished he were elsewhere he pursed his lips folded his arms and said nothing He looked then precisely as though he had been weaned on a pickle 88 Coolidge and his wife Grace who was a great baseball fan once attended a Washington Senators game and sat through all nine innings without saying a word except once when he asked her the time 89 As president Coolidge s reputation as a quiet man continued The words of a President have an enormous weight he would later write and ought not to be used indiscriminately 90 Coolidge was aware of his stiff reputation indeed he cultivated it I think the American people want a solemn ass as a President he once told Ethel Barrymore and I think I will go along with them 91 Some historians suggest that Coolidge s image was created deliberately as a campaign tactic 92 while others believe his withdrawn and quiet behavior to be natural deepening after the death of his son in 1924 93 Dorothy Parker upon learning that Coolidge had died reportedly remarked How can they tell 94 Presidency 1923 1929 Main articles Presidency of Calvin Coolidge and First inauguration of Calvin Coolidge For a chronological guide see Timeline of the Calvin Coolidge presidency On August 2 1923 President Harding died unexpectedly from a heart attack in San Francisco while on a speaking tour of the western United States Vice President Coolidge was in Vermont visiting his family home which had neither electricity nor a telephone when he received word by messenger of Harding s death 95 Coolidge dressed said a prayer and came downstairs to greet the reporters who had assembled 95 His father a notary public and justice of the peace administered the oath of office in the family s parlor by the light of a kerosene lamp at 2 47 a m on August 3 1923 whereupon the new President of the United States returned to bed Coolidge returned to Washington the next day and was sworn in again by Justice Adolph A Hoehling Jr of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia to forestall any questions about the authority of a state official to administer a federal oath 96 This second oath taking remained a secret until it was revealed by Harry M Daugherty in 1932 and confirmed by Hoehling 97 When Hoehling confirmed Daugherty s story he indicated that Daugherty then serving as United States Attorney General asked him to administer the oath without fanfare at the Willard Hotel 97 According to Hoehling he did not question Daugherty s reason for requesting a second oath taking but assumed it was to resolve any doubt about whether the first swearing in was valid 97 President Coolidge signing appropriation bills for the Veterans Bureau on the South Lawn during the garden party for wounded veterans June 5 1924 General John J Pershing is at left The man at right looking on appears to be Veterans Bureau Director Frank T Hines The nation initially did not know what to make of Coolidge who had maintained a low profile in the Harding administration many had even expected him to be replaced on the ballot in 1924 98 Coolidge believed that those of Harding s men under suspicion were entitled to every presumption of innocence taking a methodical approach to the scandals principally the Teapot Dome scandal while others clamored for rapid punishment of those they presumed guilty 99 Coolidge thought the Senate investigations of the scandals would suffice this was affirmed by the resulting resignations of those involved He personally intervened in demanding the resignation of Attorney General Harry M Daugherty after he refused to cooperate with the congressional probe He then set about to confirm that no loose ends remained in the administration arranging for a full briefing on the wrongdoing Harry A Slattery reviewed the facts with him Harlan F Stone analyzed the legal aspects for him and Senator William E Borah assessed and presented the political factors 100 Coolidge addressed Congress when it reconvened on December 6 1923 giving a speech that supported many of Harding s policies including Harding s formal budgeting process the enforcement of immigration restrictions and arbitration of coal strikes ongoing in Pennsylvania 101 The address to Congress was the first presidential speech to be broadcast over the radio 102 The Washington Naval Treaty was proclaimed just one month into Coolidge s term and was generally well received in the country 103 In May 1924 the World War I veterans World War Adjusted Compensation Act or Bonus Bill was passed over his veto 104 Coolidge signed the Immigration Act later that year which was aimed at restricting southern and eastern European immigration but appended a signing statement expressing his unhappiness with the bill s specific exclusion of Japanese immigrants 105 Just before the Republican Convention began Coolidge signed into law the Revenue Act of 1924 which reduced the top marginal tax rate from 58 to 46 as well as personal income tax rates across the board increased the estate tax and bolstered it with a new gift tax 106 On June 2 1924 Coolidge signed the act granting citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States By that time two thirds of them were already citizens having gained it through marriage military service veterans of World War I were granted citizenship in 1919 or the land allotments that had earlier taken place 107 108 109 1924 election Main article 1924 United States presidential election 1924 electoral vote results The Republican Convention was held on June 10 12 1924 in Cleveland Ohio Coolidge was nominated on the first ballot 110 The convention nominated Frank Lowden of Illinois for vice president on the second ballot but he declined former Brigadier General Charles G Dawes was nominated on the third ballot and accepted 110 The Democrats held their convention the next month in New York City The convention soon deadlocked and after 103 ballots the delegates finally agreed on a compromise candidate John W Davis with Charles W Bryan nominated for vice president The Democrats hopes were buoyed when Robert M La Follette a Republican senator from Wisconsin split from the GOP to form a new Progressive Party Many believed that the split in the Republican party like the one in 1912 would allow a Democrat to win the presidency 111 After the conventions and the death of his younger son Calvin Coolidge became withdrawn he later said that when he the son died the power and glory of the Presidency went with him 112 Even as he mourned Coolidge ran his standard campaign not mentioning his opponents by name or maligning them and delivering speeches on his theory of government including several that were broadcast over the radio 113 It was the most subdued campaign since 1896 partly because of Coolidge s grief but also because of his naturally non confrontational style 114 The other candidates campaigned in a more modern fashion but despite the split in the Republican party the results were similar to those of 1920 Coolidge and Dawes won every state outside the South except Wisconsin La Follette s home state Coolidge won the election with 382 electoral votes and the popular vote by 2 5 million over his opponents combined total 115 Industry and trade See also Radio Act of 1927 Federal Radio Commission Equal time rule and Lochner era I t is probable that a press which maintains an intimate touch with the business currents of the nation is likely to be more reliable than it would be if it were a stranger to these influences After all the chief business of the American people is business They are profoundly concerned with buying selling investing and prospering in the world President Calvin Coolidge s address to the American Society of Newspaper Editors Washington D C January 25 1925 116 During Coolidge s presidency the United States experienced a period of rapid economic growth known as the Roaring Twenties He left the administration s industrial policy in the hands of his activist Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover who energetically used government auspices to promote business efficiency and develop airlines and radio 117 Coolidge disdained regulation and demonstrated this by appointing commissioners to the Federal Trade Commission and the Interstate Commerce Commission who did little to restrict the activities of businesses under their jurisdiction 118 The regulatory state under Coolidge was as one biographer described it thin to the point of invisibility 119 Historian Robert Sobel offers some context of Coolidge s laissez faire ideology based on the prevailing understanding of federalism during his presidency As Governor of Massachusetts Coolidge supported wages and hours legislation opposed child labor imposed economic controls during World War I favored safety measures in factories and even worker representation on corporate boards Did he support these measures while president No because in the 1920s such matters were considered the responsibilities of state and local governments 120 121 However Coolidge did sign the Radio Act of 1927 into law that established the Federal Radio Commission 1927 1934 the equal time rule for radio broadcasters in the United States and restricted radio broadcasting licenses to stations that demonstrated that they served the public interest convenience or necessity Taxation and government spending Coolidge adopted the taxation policies of his Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon who advocated scientific taxation the notion that lowering taxes will increase rather than decrease government receipts 122 Congress agreed and tax rates were reduced in Coolidge s term 122 In addition to federal tax cuts Coolidge proposed reductions in federal expenditures and retiring of the federal debt 123 Coolidge s ideas were shared by the Republicans in Congress and in 1924 Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1924 which reduced income tax rates and eliminated all income taxation for some two million people 123 They reduced taxes again by passing the Revenue Acts of 1926 and 1928 all the while continuing to keep spending down so as to reduce the overall federal debt 124 By 1927 only the wealthiest 2 of taxpayers paid any federal income tax 124 Federal spending remained flat during Coolidge s administration allowing one fourth of the federal debt to be retired in total State and local governments saw considerable growth however surpassing the federal budget in 1927 125 By 1929 after Coolidge s series of tax rate reductions had cut the tax rate to 24 percent on those making over 100 000 the federal government collected more than a billion dollars in income taxes of which 65 percent was collected from those making over 100 000 In 1921 when the tax rate on people making over 100 000 a year was 73 percent the federal government collected a little over 700 million in income taxes of which 30 percent was paid by those making over 100 000 126 Opposition to farm subsidies Coolidge with his vice president Charles G Dawes Perhaps the most contentious issue of Coolidge s presidency was relief for farmers Some in Congress proposed a bill designed to fight falling agricultural prices by allowing the federal government to purchase crops to sell abroad at lower prices 127 Agriculture Secretary Henry C Wallace and other administration officials favored the bill when it was introduced in 1924 but rising prices convinced many in Congress that the bill was unnecessary and it was defeated just before the elections that year 128 In 1926 with farm prices falling once more Senator Charles L McNary and Representative Gilbert N Haugen both Republicans proposed the McNary Haugen Farm Relief Bill The bill proposed a federal farm board that would purchase surplus production in high yield years and hold it when feasible for later sale or sell it abroad 129 Coolidge opposed McNary Haugen declaring that agriculture must stand on an independent business basis and said that government control cannot be divorced from political control 129 Instead of manipulating prices he favored instead Herbert Hoover s proposal to increase profitability by modernizing agriculture Secretary Mellon wrote a letter denouncing the McNary Haugen measure as unsound and likely to cause inflation and it was defeated 130 After McNary Haugen s defeat Coolidge supported a less radical measure the Curtis Crisp Act which would have created a federal board to lend money to farm co operatives in times of surplus the bill did not pass 130 In February 1927 Congress took up the McNary Haugen bill again this time narrowly passing it and Coolidge vetoed it 131 In his veto message he expressed the belief that the bill would do nothing to help farmers benefiting only exporters and expanding the federal bureaucracy 132 Congress did not override the veto but it passed the bill again in May 1928 by an increased majority again Coolidge vetoed it 131 Farmers never have made much money said Coolidge the Vermont farmer s son I do not believe we can do much about it 133 Flood control Coolidge has often been criticized for his actions during the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 the worst natural disaster to hit the Gulf Coast until Hurricane Katrina in 2005 134 Although he did eventually name Secretary Hoover to a commission in charge of flood relief scholars argue that Coolidge overall showed a lack of interest in federal flood control 134 Coolidge did not believe that personally visiting the region after the floods would accomplish anything and that it would be seen as mere political grandstanding He also did not want to incur the federal spending that flood control would require he believed property owners should bear much of the cost 135 On the other hand Congress wanted a bill that would place the federal government completely in charge of flood mitigation 136 When Congress passed a compromise measure in 1928 Coolidge declined to take credit for it and signed the bill in private on May 15 137 Civil rights Osage men with Coolidge after he signed the bill granting Native Americans U S citizenship According to one biographer Coolidge was devoid of racial prejudice but rarely took the lead on civil rights Coolidge disliked the Ku Klux Klan and no Klansman is known to have received an appointment from him In the 1924 presidential election his opponents Robert La Follette and John Davis and his running mate Charles Dawes often attacked the Klan but Coolidge avoided the subject 138 During his administration lynchings of African Americans decreased and millions of people left the Ku Klux Klan 139 Coolidge spoke in favor of the civil rights of African Americans saying in his first State of the Union address that their rights were just as sacred as those of any other citizen under the U S Constitution and that it was a public and a private duty to protect those rights 140 141 Coolidge repeatedly called for laws to make lynching a federal crime it was already a state crime though not always enforced Congress refused to pass any such legislation On June 2 1924 Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act which granted U S citizenship to all Native Americans living on reservations Those off reservations had long been citizens 142 On June 6 1924 Coolidge delivered a commencement address at historically black non segregated Howard University in which he thanked and commended African Americans for their rapid advances in education and their contributions to U S society over the years as well as their eagerness to render their services as soldiers in the World War all while being faced with discrimination and prejudices at home 143 In a speech in October 1924 Coolidge stressed tolerance of differences as an American value and thanked immigrants for their contributions to U S society saying that they have contributed much to making our country what it is He stated that although the diversity of peoples was a detrimental source of conflict and tension in Europe it was peculiar for the United States that it was a harmonious benefit for the country Coolidge further stated the United States should assist and help immigrants who come to the country and urged immigrants to reject race hatreds and prejudices 144 page needed Foreign policy Official portrait of Calvin Coolidge Coolidge was neither well versed nor very interested in world affairs 145 His focus was directed mainly at American business especially pertaining to trade and Maintaining the Status Quo Although not an isolationist he was reluctant to enter into European involvements 146 While Coolidge believed strongly in a non interventionist foreign policy he did believe that the United States was exceptional 147 Coolidge considered the 1920 Republican victory as a rejection of the Wilsonian position that the United States should join the League of Nations 148 Coolidge believed the League did not serve American interests 148 However he spoke in favor of joining the Permanent Court of International Justice World Court provided that the nation would not be bound by advisory decisions 149 In 1926 the Senate eventually approved joining the Court with reservations 150 The League of Nations accepted the reservations but it suggested some modifications of its own 151 The Senate failed to act and so the United States did not join the World Court 151 Coolidge authorized the Dawes Plan a financial plan by Charles Dawes to provide Germany partial relief from its reparations obligations from World War I The plan initially provided stimulus for the German economy 152 Additionally Coolidge attempted to pursue further curbs on naval strength following the early successes of Harding s Washington Naval Conference by sponsoring the Geneva Naval Conference in 1927 which failed owing to a French and Italian boycott and ultimate failure of Great Britain and the United States to agree on cruiser tonnages As a result the conference was a failure and Congress eventually authorized for increased American naval spending in 1928 153 The Kellogg Briand Pact of 1928 named for Coolidge s Secretary of State Frank B Kellogg and French foreign minister Aristide Briand was also a key peacekeeping initiative The treaty ratified in 1929 committed signatories the United States the United Kingdom France Germany Italy and Japan to renounce war as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another 154 The treaty did not achieve its intended result the outlawry of war but it did provide the founding principle for international law after World War II 155 Coolidge also continued the previous administration s policy of withholding recognition of the Soviet Union 156 Efforts were made to normalize ties with post Revolution Mexico Coolidge recognized Mexico s new governments under Alvaro Obregon and Plutarco Elias Calles and continued American support for the elected Mexican government against the National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty during the Cristero War lifting the arms embargo on that country he also appointed Dwight Morrow as Ambassador to Mexico with the successful objective to avoid further American conflict with Mexico 157 158 159 Coolidge s administration would see continuity in the occupation of Nicaragua and Haiti and an end to the occupation of the Dominican Republic in 1924 as a result of withdrawal agreements finalized during Harding s administration 160 In 1925 Coolidge ordered the withdrawal of Marines stationed in Nicaragua following perceived stability after the 1924 Nicaraguan general election but redeployed them there in January 1927 following failed attempts to peacefully resolve the rapid deterioration of political stability and avert the ensuing Constitutionalist War Henry L Stimson was later sent by Coolidge to mediate a peace deal that would end the civil war and extend American military presence in Nicaragua beyond Coolidge s term in office 157 To extend an olive branch to Latin American leaders embittered over America s interventionist policies in Central America and the Caribbean 161 Coolidge led the U S delegation to the Sixth International Conference of American States January 15 17 1928 in Havana Cuba the only international trip Coolidge made during his presidency 162 He would be the last sitting American president to visit Cuba until Barack Obama in 2016 163 For Canada Coolidge authorized the St Lawrence Seaway a system of locks and canals that would provide large vessels passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes 164 157 Cabinet Coolidge s cabinet in 1924 outside the White House Front row left to right Harry Stewart New John W Weeks Charles Evans Hughes Coolidge Andrew Mellon Harlan F Stone Curtis D Wilbur Back row left to right James J Davis Henry C Wallace Herbert Hoover Hubert Work Although a few of Harding s cabinet appointees were scandal tarred Coolidge initially retained all of them out of an ardent conviction that as successor to a deceased elected president he was obligated to retain Harding s counselors and policies until the next election He kept Harding s able speechwriter Judson T Welliver Stuart Crawford replaced Welliver in November 1925 165 Coolidge appointed C Bascom Slemp a Virginia Congressman and experienced federal politician to work jointly with Edward T Clark a Massachusetts Republican organizer whom he retained from his vice presidential staff as Secretaries to the President a position equivalent to the modern White House Chief of Staff 103 Perhaps the most powerful person in Coolidge s Cabinet was Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon who controlled the administration s financial policies and was regarded by many including House Minority Leader John Nance Garner as more powerful than Coolidge himself 166 Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover also held a prominent place in Coolidge s Cabinet in part because Coolidge found value in Hoover s ability to win positive publicity with his pro business proposals 167 Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes directed Coolidge s foreign policy until he resigned in 1925 following Coolidge s re election He was replaced by Frank B Kellogg who had previously served as a senator and as the ambassador to Great Britain Coolidge made two other appointments following his re election with William M Jardine taking the position of Secretary of Agriculture and John G Sargent becoming Attorney General 168 Coolidge did not have a vice president during his first term but Charles Dawes became vice president during Coolidge s second term and Dawes and Coolidge clashed over farm policy and other issues 169 Judicial appointments Main article List of federal judges appointed by Calvin Coolidge See also Harlan F Stone Supreme Court nomination Coolidge appointed Harlan F Stone first as Attorney General and then as a Supreme Court Justice Coolidge appointed one justice to the Supreme Court of the United States Harlan F Stone in 1925 Stone was Coolidge s fellow Amherst alumnus a Wall Street lawyer and conservative Republican Stone was serving as dean of Columbia Law School when Coolidge appointed him to be attorney general in 1924 to restore the reputation tarnished by Harding s Attorney General Harry M Daugherty 170 It does not appear that Coolidge considered appointing anyone other than Stone although Stone himself had urged Coolidge to appoint Benjamin N Cardozo 171 Stone proved to be a firm believer in judicial restraint and was regarded as one of the court s three liberal justices who would often vote to uphold New Deal legislation 172 President Franklin D Roosevelt later appointed Stone to be chief justice Coolidge nominated 17 judges to the United States Courts of Appeals and 61 judges to the United States district courts He appointed judges to various specialty courts as well including Genevieve R Cline who became the first woman named to the federal judiciary when Coolidge placed her on the United States Customs Court in 1928 173 Coolidge also signed the Judiciary Act of 1925 into law allowing the Supreme Court more discretion over its workload 1928 election Main article 1928 United States presidential election source source source source source source source source Collection of video clips of President Coolidge In the summer of 1927 Coolidge vacationed in the Black Hills of South Dakota where he engaged in horseback riding and fly fishing and attended rodeos He made Custer State Park his summer White House While on vacation Coolidge surprisingly issued a terse statement that he would not seek a second full term as president I do not choose to run for President in 1928 174 After allowing the reporters to take that in Coolidge elaborated If I take another term I will be in the White House till 1933 Ten years in Washington is longer than any other man has had it too long 175 In his memoirs Coolidge explained his decision not to run The Presidential office takes a heavy toll of those who occupy it and those who are dear to them While we should not refuse to spend and be spent in the service of our country it is hazardous to attempt what we feel is beyond our strength to accomplish 176 After leaving office he and Grace returned to Northampton where he wrote his memoirs The Republicans retained the White House in 1928 with a landslide by Herbert Hoover Coolidge had been reluctant to endorse Hoover as his successor on one occasion he remarked that for six years that man has given me unsolicited advice all of it bad 177 Even so Coolidge had no desire to split the party by publicly opposing the nomination of the popular commerce secretary 178 Post presidency 1929 1933 Coolidge addressing a crowd at Arlington National Cemetery s Roman style Memorial Amphitheater in 1924 After his presidency Coolidge retired to a spacious home in Northampton The Beeches 179 He kept a Hacker runabout boat on the Connecticut River and was often observed on the water by local boating enthusiasts During this period he also served as chairman of the Non Partisan Railroad Commission an entity created by several banks and corporations to survey the country s long term transportation needs and make recommendations for improvements He was an honorary president of the American Foundation for the Blind a director of New York Life Insurance Company president of the American Antiquarian Society and a trustee of Amherst College 180 Coolidge published his autobiography in 1929 and wrote a syndicated newspaper column Calvin Coolidge Says from 1930 to 1931 181 Faced with a Democratic landslide in the 1932 presidential election some Republicans spoke of rejecting Hoover as their party s nominee and instead drafting Coolidge to run Coolidge made it clear that he was not interested in running again and that he would publicly repudiate any effort to draft him 182 Hoover was renominated and Coolidge made several radio addresses in support of him Hoover then lost the general election to Coolidge s 1920 vice presidential Democratic opponent Franklin D Roosevelt in a landslide 183 Death Coolidge died suddenly from coronary thrombosis at The Beeches at 12 45 p m January 5 1933 at age 60 184 Shortly before his death Coolidge confided to an old friend I feel I no longer fit in with these times 185 Coolidge is buried in Plymouth Notch Cemetery Plymouth Notch Vermont The nearby family home is maintained as one of the original buildings on the Calvin Coolidge Homestead District site The State of Vermont dedicated a new visitors center nearby to mark Coolidge s 100th birthday on July 4 1972 Radio film and commemorations Coolidge with reporters and cameramen Despite his reputation as a quiet and even reclusive politician Coolidge made use of the new medium of radio and made radio history several times while president He made himself available to reporters giving 520 press conferences meeting with reporters more regularly than any president before or since 186 Coolidge s second inauguration was the first presidential inauguration broadcast on radio On December 6 1923 his speech to Congress was broadcast on radio 187 the first presidential radio address 188 Coolidge signed the Radio Act of 1927 which assigned regulation of radio to the newly created Federal Radio Commission On August 11 1924 Theodore W Case using the Phonofilm sound on film process he developed for Lee de Forest filmed Coolidge on the White House lawn making Silent Cal the first president to appear in a sound film The title of the DeForest film was President Coolidge Taken on the White House Grounds 189 190 When Charles Lindbergh arrived in Washington on a U S Navy ship after his celebrated 1927 trans Atlantic flight President Coolidge welcomed him back to the U S and presented him with the Medal of Honor 191 the event was captured on film 192 Coolidge was the only president to have his portrait on a coin during his lifetime the Sesquicentennial of American Independence Half Dollar minted in 1926 Coolidge on a 1938 postage stampSee alsoSS President Coolidge Coolidge Arizona Coolidge Dam List of things named after Calvin Coolidge Presidency of Calvin CoolidgeNotes Coolidge was Vice President under Warren G Harding and became president upon Harding s death on August 2 1923 As this was prior to the adoption of the Twenty fifth Amendment in 1967 a vacancy in the office of vice president was not filled until the next ensuing election and inauguration See also the main article Lawrence textile strike for a full description The exact total was 1 117 out of 1 544 61 The tally was Coolidge 317 774 Long 192 673 70 References John Coolidge Guardian of President s Legacy Dies at 93 The New York Times June 4 2000 Retrieved May 11 2019 He had originally been John Calvin Coolidge but dropped his first name to avoid confusion and later legally changed it a b Sobel 1998a p 111 McCoy 1967 pp 75 76 McCoy 1967 pp 420 421 Greenberg 2006 pp 49 53 Fuess 1940 p 500 Sobel 1998a pp 12 13 Greenberg 2006 pp 1 7 Fieldstadt Elisha April 22 2021 Presidents ranked from worst to best CBS News Archived from the original on February 3 2021 Retrieved October 24 2021 Significant Papers Coolidge Prosperity Gave America the Reserve to Weather the Great Depression Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation Retrieved September 27 2021 The Pilgrim s Faith Coolidge and Religion www coolidgefoundation org Retrieved December 15 2019 Sobel 1998a p 22 Coolidge 1929 p 12 Fuess 1940 p 17 McCoy 1967 p 5 White 1938 p 11 Fuess 1940 p 12 Fuess 1940 p 7 Sobel 1998a p 24 Roberts 1995 p 199 White 1938 pp 43 44 Shlaes 2013 pp 66 68 Fuess 1940 pp 74 81 McCoy 1967 pp 22 26 Bryson 2013 p 187 White 1938 p 61 Shapell Benjamin Willen Sara July 6 2017 The Death of Calvin Coolidge Jr Shapell Manuscript Foundation Retrieved April 8 2019 Remini Robert V Golway Remini Terry eds 2008 Fellow Citizens The Penguin Book of U S Presidential Inaugural Addresses Penguin Books p 307 ISBN 978 1440631573 President Coolidge s Burden The Atlantic 2003 Retrieved December 12 2021 Martin 2000 Shlaes 2013 p 91 Grinder Darrin Shaw Steve 2016 The Presidents amp Their Faith From George Washington to Barack Obama Elevate Publishing ISBN 978 1943425778 a b Sobel 1998a pp 49 51 White 1938 pp 51 53 Fuess 1940 p 83 a b Fuess 1940 pp 84 85 a b McCoy 1967 p 29 Sobel 1998a p 61 Sobel 1998a p 62 Fuess 1940 p 99 Sobel 1998a pp 63 66 White 1938 pp 99 102 Sobel 1998a pp 68 69 Sobel 1998a p 72 Fuess 1940 pp 106 107 Sobel 1998a p 74 Fuess 1940 p 108 Sobel 1998a p 76 Fuess 1940 pp 110 111 McCoy 1967 pp 45 46 a b Sobel 1998a pp 79 80 Fuess 1940 p 111 a b c Coolidge 1919 pp 2 9 White 1938 p 105 Fuess 1940 pp 114 115 White 1938 p 111 Sobel 1998a pp 90 92 Sobel 1998a p 90 Fuess 1940 p 124 Sobel 1998a pp 92 98 Fuess 1940 pp 133 136 White 1938 p 117 Fuess 1940 pp 139 142 Fuess 1940 p 145 White 1938 p 125 Fuess 1940 pp 151 152 Sobel 1998a pp 107 110 Sobel 1998a p 112 Sobel 1998a p 115 McCoy 1967 p 76 Russell 1975 pp 77 79 Sobel 1998a p 129 Russell 1975 pp 86 87 Russell 1975 pp 111 113 Sobel 1998a pp 133 136 a b Russell 1975 p 113 White 1938 pp 162 164 Russell 1975 p 120 Coolidge 1919 pp 222 224 White 1938 pp 164 165 Sobel 1998a p 142 Russell 1975 pp 182 183 a b Sobel 1998a p 143 Shlaes 2013 pp 174 179 Fuess 1940 p 238 Fuess 1940 pp 239 243 McCoy 1967 pp 102 113 Sobel 1998a p 117 Fuess 1940 p 195 Fuess 1940 p 186 Fuess 1940 p 187 McCoy 1967 p 81 Fuess 1940 pp 187 188 Sobel 1998a pp 152 153 White 1938 pp 198 199 Fuess 1940 pp 259 260 White 1938 pp 211 213 a b c Sobel 1998a pp 204 212 White 1938 pp 217 219 Sobel 1998a pp 210 211 Sobel 1998a p 219 McCoy 1967 p 136 Appleby Joyce Brinkley Alan Broussard Albert S McPherson James M Ritchie Donald A 2010 The American vision modern times Appleby Joyce 1929 2016 National Geographic Society U S Teacher wraparound ed Columbus Ohio Glencoe McGraw Hill p 364 ISBN 978 0078775154 OCLC 227926730 Hannaford p 169 Coolidge for a New Arms Conference Demands Constructive Federal Thrift Favors Participation in German Loan Sees Hope in Dawes Plan Proposes Limitation Parley After Reparations Settlement Intends to Punish Graft Some Public Officers Guilty He Says at Associated Press Annual Luncheon Hears Political Reports Though All Callers Except Col George Harvey Describe Their Visits as Formal The New York Times April 23 1924 p 2 Retrieved June 10 2019 Sobel 1998a p 217 Cordery 2008 p 302 Bryson 2013 p page needed Sobel 1998a p 243 Greenberg 2006 p 60 Buckley pp 593 626 Gilbert pp 87 109 Greenberg 2006 p 9 a b Fuess 1940 pp 308 309 Fuess 1940 pp 310 315 a b c Confirms Daugherty s Story of Coolidge s Second Oath Sobel 1998a pp 226 228 Fuess 1940 pp 303 205 Ferrell 1998 pp 43 51 White 1938 p 265 White 1938 pp 272 277 Fuess 1940 pp 328 329 Sobel 1998a pp 248 49 Shlaes 2013 p 271 a b Fuess 1940 pp 320 322 Fuess 1940 p 341 Fuess 1940 p 342 Sobel 1998a p 269 Sobel 1998a pp 278 279 Madsen 2015 p 168 Kappler 1929 Landry 2016 a b Fuess 1940 pp 345 346 Sobel 1998a p 300 Coolidge 1929 p 190 Sobel 1998a pp 300 301 Sobel 1998a pp 302 303 Fuess 1940 p 354 Shlaes 2013 p 324 Ferrell 1998 pp 64 65 Ferrell 1998 pp 66 72 Sobel 1998a p 318 Ferrell 1998 p 72 Sobel 1998b Greenberg 2006 p 47 Ferrell 1998 p 62 a b Sobel 1998a pp 310 311 Greenberg 2006 pp 127 129 a b Sobel 1998a pp 310 311 Fuess 1940 pp 382 383 a b Ferrell 1998 p 170 Ferrell 1998 p 174 Rader Benjamin 1971 Federal Taxation in the 1920s A Re examination Historian pp 432 433 Ferrell 1998 p 84 McCoy 1967 pp 234 235 McCoy 1967 p 235 a b Fuess 1940 pp 383 384 a b Sobel 1998a p 327 a b Fuess 1940 p 388 Ferrell 1998 p 93 Sobel 1998a p 331 Ferrell 1998 p 86 a b Sobel 1998a p 315 Barry 1997 pp 286 287 Greenberg 2006 pp 132 135 McCoy 1967 pp 330 331 Barry 1997 pp 372 274 Greenberg 2006 p 135 Roberts 2014 p 209 Shlaes 2013 p 6 Sobel 1998a p 250 McCoy 1967 pp 328 329 s Calvin Coolidge s First State of the Union Address Deloria 1992 p 91 Coolidge 1926 pp 31 36 Coolidge 1926 pp 159 56 Calvin Coolidge Foreign Affairs Miller Center Miller Center October 4 2016 Retrieved October 28 2018 Sobel 1998a p 342 Joel Webster Coolidge against the world Peace prosperity and foreign policy in the 1920s James Madison University Retrieved February 1 2020 a b McCoy 1967 pp 184 185 McCoy 1967 p 360 McCoy 1967 p 363 a b Greenberg 2006 pp 114 116 Dawes Plan World War I reparations Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved October 28 2018 Marriott Leo 2005 Treaty cruisers the world s first international warship building competition Barnsley Pen amp Sword Maritime p 12 ISBN 1844151883 OCLC 60668374 Fuess 1940 pp 421 423 McCoy 1967 pp 380 381 Greenberg 2006 pp 123 124 McCoy 1967 p 181 a b c Foreign Policy coolidgefoundation org Retrieved October 28 2018 Sobel 1998a p 349 McCoy 1967 pp 178 179 Fuess 1940 pp 414 417 Ferrell 1998 pp 122 123 Miller Center 2016 Historian 2018 Kim 2014 The Great Lakes St Lawrence Seaway System Saint Lawrence Seaway March 20 2014 Retrieved October 28 2018 Greenberg 2006 pp 48 49 Rusnak 1983 pp 270 271 Polsky amp Tkacheva 2002 pp 224 227 Greenberg 2006 pp 111 112 Senate Historian 2014 Fuess 1940 p 364 Handler 1995 pp 113 122 Galston passim Freeman 2002 p 216 Sobel 1998a p 370 White 1938 p 361 Coolidge 1929 p 239 Ferrell 1998 p 195 Clemens amp Daggett 1945 pp 147 63 Sobel 1998a p 407 Fuess 1940 pp 450 455 Sobel 1998a p 403 Ferrell 1998 pp 201 202 Fuess 1940 pp 457 459 Greenberg 2006 p 153 Fuess 1940 p 460 Greenberg 2006 pp 154 155 Sobel 1998a p 410 Greenberg 2006 p 7 Sobel 1998a p 252 Williams Emrys 1967 The Presidential address Radio and Electronic Engineer 33 1 1 doi 10 1049 ree 1967 0001 ISSN 0033 7722 de Forest 1924 Mashon Mike November 3 2016 Silent Cal Not So Silent Now See Hear blogs loc gov Retrieved February 9 2019 Medal of Honor will be awarded to Lindbergh UPI May 23 1927 Retrieved February 9 2019 Unknown 1927 Lindbergh honored by President Calvin Coolidge Periscope Film Archived from the original on November 24 2021 Retrieved February 9 2019 Works citedExternal video Q amp A interview with Amity Shlaes on Coolidge February 10 2013 C SPAN Booknotes interview with Robert Sobel on Coolidge An American Enigma August 30 1998 C SPANAbout Coolidge and his era Confirms Daugherty s Story of Coolidge s Second Oath St Louis Post Dispatch St Louis Missouri Associated Press February 2 1932 p 1C Retrieved May 31 2018 Barry John M 1997 Rising Tide The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America Simon amp Schuster ISBN 978 0684840024 Buckley Kerry W December 2003 A President for the Great Silent Majority Bruce Barton s Construction of Calvin Coolidge The New England Quarterly 76 4 593 626 doi 10 2307 1559844 JSTOR 1559844 Bryson Bill 2013 One Summer America 1927 New York Doubleday ISBN 978 0767919401 Clemens Cyril Daggett Athern P 1945 Coolidge s I Do Not Choose to Run Granite or Putty The New England Quarterly 18 2 147 163 doi 10 2307 361282 JSTOR 361282 Cordery Stacy A 2008 Alice Alice Roosevelt Longworth from White House Princess to Washington Power Broker Penguin Books ISBN 978 0143114277 Deloria Vincent 1992 American Indian Policy in the Twentieth Century University of Oklahoma Press ISBN 978 0806124247 Ferrell Robert H 1998 The Presidency of Calvin Coolidge University Press of Kansas ISBN 978 0700608928 Freeman Jo 2002 A Room at a Time How Women Entered Party Politics Rowman and Littlefield ISBN 978 0847698059 de Forest Lee 1924 President Coolidge Taken on the White House Ground 1924 Retrieved February 4 2007 Fuess Claude Moore 1940 Calvin Coolidge The Man from Vermont Little Brown ISBN 978 1406756739 Galston Miriam November 1995 Activism and Restraint The Evolution of Harlan Fiske Stone s Judicial Philosophy Tulane Law Revue 70 137 Gilbert Robert E 2005 Calvin Coolidge s Tragic Presidency the Political Effects of Bereavement and Depression Journal of American Studies 39 1 87 109 doi 10 1017 S0021875805009266 JSTOR 27557598 Greenberg David 2006 Calvin Coolidge The American Presidents Series Times Books ISBN 978 0805069570 Handler Milton C December 1995 Clerking for Justice Harlan Fiske Stone Journal of Supreme Court History 20 1 113 122 doi 10 1111 j 1540 5818 1995 tb00098 x ISSN 1059 4329 Historian 2018 Travels of President Calvin Coolidge U S Department of State Office of the Historian Kappler Charles 1929 Indian affairs laws and treaties Vol IV Treaties Government Printing Office Archived from the original on October 11 2008 Retrieved October 14 2008 Kim Susanna December 18 2014 Here s What Happened the Last Time a US President Visited Cuba ABC News Archived from the original on January 6 2017 Retrieved March 1 2016 Landry Alysa July 26 2016 First Sitting Prez Adopted by Tribe Starts Desecration of Mount Rushmore IndianCountryToday com Archived from the original on August 4 2019 Retrieved June 11 2018 Madsen Deborah L ed 2015 The Routledge Companion to Native American Literature Routledge p 168 ISBN 978 1317693192 Martin Douglas June 4 2000 John Coolidge Guardian of President s Legacy Dies at 93 The New York Times ISSN 0362 4331 Retrieved May 31 2018 McCoy Donald R 1967 Calvin Coolidge The Quiet President Macmillan ISBN 978 1468017779 Miller Center 2016 Calvin Coolidge Foreign Affairs millercenter org Miller Center of Public Affairs University of Virginia Archived from the original on February 20 2016 Retrieved February 24 2016 Polsky Andrew J Tkacheva Olesya Winter 2002 Legacies versus Politics Herbert Hoover Partisan Conflict and the Symbolic Appeal of Associationalism in the 1920s PDF International Journal of Politics Culture and Society 16 2 207 235 doi 10 1023 A 1020525029722 hdl 2027 42 43975 JSTOR 20020160 S2CID 142508983 Archived PDF from the original on August 20 2017 Roberts Gary Boyd 1995 Ancestors of American Presidents The Bimonthly Newsletter of the New England Historic Genealogical Society 15 199 Roberts Jason 2014 The Biographical Legacy of Calvin Coolidge and the 1924 Presidential Election In Katherine A S Sibley ed A Companion to Warren G Harding Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover Wiley Blackwell ISBN 978 1118834473 Rusnak Robert J Spring 1983 Andrew W Mellon Reluctant Kingmaker Presidential Studies Quarterly 13 2 269 278 JSTOR 27547924 Russell Francis 1975 A City in Terror Calvin Coolidge and the 1919 Boston Police Strike Beacon Press ISBN 978 0807050330 Senate Historian 2014 Charles G Dawes 30th Vice President 1925 1929 US Senate Archived from the original on November 6 2014 Retrieved February 2 2017 Shlaes Amity 2013 Coolidge New York HarperCollins ISBN 978 0061967559 Sobel Robert 1998a Coolidge An American Enigma Regnery Publishing ISBN 978 0895264107 Sobel Robert 1998b Coolidge and American Business John F Kennedy Library and Museum Archived from the original on March 8 2006 White William Allen 1938 A Puritan in Babylon The Story of Calvin Coolidge Macmillan By Coolidge Coolidge Calvin 1919 Have Faith in Massachusetts A Collection of Speeches and Messages 2nd ed Houghton Mifflin Coolidge Calvin 2004 1926 Foundations of the Republic Speeches and Addresses University Press of the Pacific ISBN 978 1410215987 Coolidge Calvin 1929 The Autobiography of Calvin Coolidge Cosmopolitan Book Corp ISBN 978 0944951033 Coolidge Calvin 2001 Peter Hannaford ed The Quotable Calvin Coolidge Sensible Words for a New Century Images From The Past Incorporated ISBN 978 1884592331 Further readingFerrell Robert H 2008 Grace Coolidge The People s Lady in Silent Cal s White House ISBN 978 0700615636 LCCN 2007045737 Felzenberg Alvin S Fall 1998 Calvin Coolidge and Race His Record in Dealing with the Racial Tensions of the 1920s New England Journal of History 55 1 83 96 Fuess Claude M 1953 Calvin Coolidge Twenty Years After PDF Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 63 2 351 369 Hatfield Mark O 1997 Calvin Coolidge 1921 1923 Vice Presidents of the United States 1789 1993 U S Government Printing Office pp 347 354 Postell Joseph W Roaring Against Progressivism The Principled Conservatism of Calvin Coolidge in Joseph W Postell and Johnathan O Neill eds Toward an American Conservatism Constitutional Conservatism during the Progressive Era 2013 pp 181 208 Russell Francis Coolidge and the Boston Police Strike Antioch Review 16 4 1956 pp 403 15 online Tacoma Thomas J The Political Thought of Calvin Coolidge Burkean Americanist Lexington Books 2020 Tacoma Thomas Calvin Coolidge and the Great Depression A New Assessment Independent Review 24 3 2019 361 380 online Zibel Howard J The Role of Calvin Coolidge in the Boston Police Strike of 1919 Industrial and Labor Relations Forum 6 no 3 November 1969 299 318Primary sources Coolidge Calvin 1964 Howard H Quint and Robert H Ferrell ed The Talkative President The Off the Record Press Conferences of Calvin Coolidge University of Massachusetts Press Coolidge Grace 1992 Wikander Lawrence E Ferrell Robert H eds Grace Coolidge An Autobiography High Plains Pub Co ISBN 978 1881019015 LCCN 92072825 External linksCalvin Coolidge at Wikipedia s sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource White House biography United States Congress Calvin Coolidge id C000738 Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library amp Museum Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation Text of a number of Coolidge speeches Miller Center of Public Affairs Calvin Coolidge collected news and commentary at The New York Times Calvin Coolidge A Resource Guide Library of Congress Works by Calvin Coolidge at Project Gutenberg Works by or about Calvin Coolidge at Internet Archive President Coolidge Taken on the White House Ground the first presidential film with sound recording Calvin Coolidge at Curlie Life Portrait of Calvin Coolidge from C SPAN s American Presidents Life Portraits September 27 1999 Calvin Coolidge Personal Manuscripts Appearances on C SPAN Calvin Coolidge at IMDb Newspaper clippings about Calvin Coolidge in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW Portals Biography 1920s Conservatism Radio United States Politics Law Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Calvin Coolidge amp oldid 1142361580, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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